finally family!

I have been dying for my family to visit ever since we moved here, and over two years later they finally made it! Ok, so it wasn't for me, it was to bring Britt up to BYU Idaho, but they still spent they week at my house and it was a BLAST. Everyone crammed in our little place. We hiked waterfall canyon, long boarded, rode bikes, and spent our nights watching movies and eating pizookies. I thought I loved that dessert, but my family loved it even more. We ate them 3 nights in a row. Monday I went with my family to bring Britt up to BYU Idaho. It was fun to do a family road trip again. I had no idea Idaho was so cold, Brittany is definitely in for a treat. I am so glad I could take Brittany up for her first college weekend! It was great to get to spend so much time with my family, and I am so impressed with how grown up Brittany is. Definitely not the middle school-er I remember her as. For some reason the age everyone was when I moved away for college is the age they stay in my mind. Anyways, I already miss them like crazy and need my Mom back here to take care of me again. It is just wrong to spoil me for a weekend and then leave!

We are easily entertained. We spent a few evenings racing on the long boards and trying to avoid Sam, who loves pretending like he is going to crash into us on his bike and then stopping half an inch before he gets to you. We really missed out, not having a brother (Not!).

Sam was a trooper. He put up with the chic flicks great, although he drew the line when we put in Center Stage. His line of the week was, "Why do we have to WATCH chic flicks when we are LIVING one big chic flick?" I hope we have all girls.

I love being with my mom. I miss her a lot already. She has always and still loves to always be doing something, even if it's just riding bikes around or taking a walk. She was never the type of mom to sit around and watch TV. In fact, I don't EVER remember her watching a show for herself. While she was here, every morning I would wake up and all the dishes would be done and the house would be clean. I don't know how she does it.

I LOVED getting to spend time with Brittany. It is still weird for me to see her all grown up. She is one of the kindest people you will ever meet. Her roommates don't know how good they've got it.

Brittany in her new place. I had no idea it would be so hard to leave her there! It made me remember how homesick I was my first couple months away from home.

Ally is now the only child at home! I miss her witty personality already. I remember my senior year of high school, she was only 5 but she would put all my friends in their place. She could come up with better comebacks than most of the boys. They loved trying to tease her. I'm guessing she is already using the "only child" thing to her advantage.

awesome.

Picture this: First day of school at Weber University, and lines of cars backed up at the intersection of the nearby main road. Me, running downhill, FAST. My ankle gives out, and before I know it I am sprawled out on the asphalt, right in front of that line of cars, unable to get up because I've just had the wind knocked out of me. It was awesome.

spoiled.

I am spoiled. While we were in Hawaii we went into an art gallery where I fell in love with the work of a certain artist, Heather Brown. I wanted to take one of her paintings home badly but the price tag put a quick end to that. A few weeks ago Sam bought a canvas and painted me a picture that has a similar style, just with his own spin on it. Thank you, Sam. I love the painting.

our new place.

So this is home for a while. We love it. We have a real backyard with a garden, and we live in a real neighborhood. We have a church across the street, rather than a bar. We have 2 next door neighbors, rather than a quick cash place and a Wendy's. We made quite the upgrade.

My favorite part of the house- the kitchen that is open to the family room. So nice to be able to talk to people while I slave around in the kitchen. Sandwiches take a lot of time to make, you know. Oh, and if you will notice the pink and green cups. When we first got married we bought these plastic cups, and two and a half years later Sam has yet to drink out of a pink "girl cup. He refuses. And he gets ticked if I drink out of his green "boy" cups.

I am quite the decorator, I know.

Our computer room/Sam's stuff.

It will be very nice to not have the bathroom door open up to the kitchen. Very nice. I don't think I need to share stories.

andersen family reunion

We had an official family reunion, the kind where you wear matching shirts and everything. It was in St. George and only for 2 days, and with family that I hadn't seen in years. Like since I was 5. My mom's family isn't too big on get-togethers. It was interesting and a little awkward, and Sam and I hung out most of the time with my sisters. I LOVED getting to see my mom, dad, and sisters and already miss them like crazy.

Outside the St. George temple

We got to share a room with these guys. My nephews are so much fun. Ethan and Sam had fun daring each other to do lots of gross things. Unfortunately, we had to switch rooms for the last night due to Kade keeping us up most of the first night with this loud humming noise he makes when he sleeps. Notice how tired we look?

Chuck-a-rama. Doesn't the name make you want to up chuck?

We spent most of Monday hiking the narrows. It was awesome! The rocks were beautiful and it was fun hiking through all the water. A few times you had to climb up a ladder under a waterfall. We had so much fun.

My family with my grandparents, Allen and Donna. My grandparents lived in Hawaii while I went to college and took very good care of me. It was fun to get to know them, since I had only seen them a few times before moving over there. They are very generous and just nice people. Donna pretty much takes care of my grandpa, as she is 25 years younger. Talk about an age gap. They put on a great reunion and I wonder how long it will be until the next one...

i love my sisters!

I LOVE having all sisters. It's the best. We have so much fun together just doing everyday things. I remember when we were younger, we would mop the floors by rubber banding sponges to our feet and skating around. Brooke and I tried the same tactic to clean the carpet, but it didn't turn out too well. We had gotten gum in the carpet and my mom left us to clean it, so we put on socks, dipped our feet in the water, and skated around on the carpet. Then we got smart and just dumped all the water on the carpet. That didn't go over too well when Brooke tried to plug in the radio...she got a little shock. I remember us sneaking gross and embarrassing things into each other's lunches...like rotten bananas or old pancakes. Growing up was so fun thanks to all my sisters. I finally got to see them last week in St. George. It was only for 2 days but we had fun swimming at the hotel pool and talking, which is what we do best.

i could get used to this.

The 24th of July is big stuff here in Ogden. We went to the final night of the rodeo with Dave and Melissa, and it was AWESOME. My days of going to the Flake Rodeos didn't prepare me for this. My idea of a rodeo was my uncles racing on horses to pick up watermelons and eggs from opposite sides of the arena. Not that that isn't fun, it's just a different kind of rodeo. This was the real thing, buckin' bulls and buckin' stallions all night long. And motocross kids doing backflips off 30 foot jumps to finish the night off. And fireworks when it got dark. And the announcer making fun of Obama throughout the night. And plenty of very, very patritoic people. It was refreshing. It made me realize that Utah is a pretty great place. I miss my family and I hate the cold, but I love so many things about this place. Like how it is full of so many, many good people. And summers are amazing. And the grocery stores have people playing organs at accordians for you while you shop. I don't know where we'll be after Sam graduates, but if it is here in Utah I am ok with that.

God Bless America.

We spent our 4th of July camping with Sam's dad (Tim), sister (Emily), and Emily's friend, Alli. We got the perfect spot right next to the Causey reservoir. It was so pretty. We had fun just swimming and cliff jumping during the day and just hanging out and setting off fireworks at night.

ward campout. soooo much fun.

Last weekend was our ward camp out, and it was a blast. We got in late Thursday, and all ate dinner and headed to the natural hot springs. Friday we spent the day tubing down the river. It was a perfect river to tube down - not to freaky, but crazy enough to keep it exciting. It was hot and sunny and the water felt so good. Friday night we had a huge dinner and a lip sync contest where Sam and his friends had quite the performance. Saturday we spent the whole day the at pool. The pool was AWESOME. It had great slides and huge platforms to dive off of. The highest one was 32 feet high. It was fun to watch all the crazy guys. Sam was loving it.

A bunch of us linked tubes the whole way down the river, it was so much fun. We couldn't stop laughing. Poor Rachael got flipped, but other than that we made it out injury free.

All the girls, watching our husbands try to make it off a waterfall.

All the guys. Sam way in heaven- people to do crazy stuff with all weekend long.

Sam and the Elder's quorum presidency performing to Milli Vanilli. Hello 80's.

Early morning hike - we took the wrong trail and ended up going straight up the mountain. It was so hard and we were all sun burnt and sore by the time we finished.

Sam and I are in a married student ward for Weber State and it is a blast. We have met so many close friends that I'm sure are some of the nicest people we will ever meet. It is great to be surrounded by so many genuinely good people. Ogden has become one of our favorite places, and I know that it's because of all the great friends that we've made.

early mornings

There was no sleeping in during our vacation. Since it was summer, the waves were in Waikiki. And since Sam's surfing partner worked at 8am, it meant that we left to go surfing around 4am, almost every morning. I would usually run on the beach while Sam and J.J. surfed, then we would make our way back to North Shore forthe rest of the day. In Utah it would kill us to wake up at 4am, but we both loved driving on the coastline while the sun came up. It was a great way to start the day.