Goodbye For Two Years

Last Sunday Brock had his farewell talk in preparation for him leaving to the MTC July 20th, he will be going to the Guatemala City, Guatemala Central mission, Spanish Speaking. He asked Melanie and I to do the musical number so we prepared a beautiful duet called "Because He Lives". Tons of people showed up to see him off and it was fun to see friends from high school again. Our song went great, although I felt a little bad for making Brock tear up before he even started his talk. He did a wonderful job though and the spirit was really strong. Besides two youth speakers and the musical number, his bishop gave him the whole time to speak but he had no problem filling it up.

After the meeting we all went over to his house for lunch. His mom had prepared pulled pork sandwiches the day before and there was tons of food. Every one sat in the shade and socialized for the next couple hours while Brock made his way through talking to everyone. After almost everyone had gone home except his extended family i went home to take a nap before heading back again.

When I returned our group of friends from Provo had arrived. They hadn't been able to come earlier because Javier was submitting his mission papers. It was great to see them again and we hung out catching up until it got late and they needed to get on the road back to Provo. I feel bad they had to drive so much in one day but I know Brock really appreciated it, and so did I.

Pepe, Marissa, Brock, Me, Whitni, Javier, and Junior

Brock with all the girls, including sister Alexis

Now for the boys

 Who has the best calves?

By the time they left I was completely exhausted so after talking with Brock's family a little more I headed home as well since I'd get to see Brock for a couple more days. While all the goodbyes are sad, I am so excited for all the experiences he is going to have, I know Brock is going to make one amazing missionary :)

Picture Time :)

A couple weeks ago Lisa was in Twin Falls and she offered to do Melanie's senior pictures if we'd meet her there. Since our schedules were hard to match we just picked up one Saturday and headed down there for the day. While most of the photo shoot was focused on getting Melanie's pictures we also found time for a few sister shots and I got a couple by myself as well. Here are my favorites...

Lagoon!

On a rather spur of the moment decision, my Dad decided to take work off the whole week of the fourth and so we decided to make a two day trip to Lagoon, one of my families favorite summer spots. I invited Brock to come with us as well and so Wednesday morning at about 7 am we all packed in the big blue van. We all tried to catch a little bit of sleep but some of us were a little too excited...

Once at Lagoon we got settled in the campsite next door and headed out to the park. We spent most of the day hitting as many rides as we could, my favorites being Wicked, Samurai, White roller coaster, the Swings, and Re-entry. When we got in line for the Rocket (re-entry), we ended up next to the most hilarious guys. They spent the whole time we were waiting convincing those already on the ride that bolts were loose and emergency lights were on, or using other tactics to make them as scared as possible before the ride took of. My stomach hurt from laughing so hard they were so entertaining. I think the guy running the ride was pretty happy when they left though because all the riders were making him check their harnesses twice. Oh and I have to give a quick shout out to Brock for being much braver this time around ;)

Senior trip June 2010

(Brock wearing his game face)

Amidst all the rides we took a break to celebrate McKayla's 15th birthday with a stack of hostess cupcakes from the gas station and a candle. Don't worry though, we made up for the cake with all the fun presents she got including clothes and lots of Bath and Body Works.

On day two we headed straight to the water park, Lagoon-A-Beach. Since their was a light cloud covering and slightly lower temperatures we had free range of the park and hardly any lines for the slides.

Brock and I spent a good deal of our time racing each other on inter tubes down the big white slide. He also convinced me to try the steep white body slides, something I haven't done since I was 8 years old and have been terrified of ever since. I was proud of myself for trying them but they still aren't my favorite, although it was pretty sweet catching some air as I flew out of the one with the tunnel.

After being adventurous we followed my parents' suit and relaxed on the lazy river.

Once we were all tuckered out we rested a bit before hitting the rides once more. 

At about 7 pm we packed up and headed out, and after a near fiasco at Wendy's and some car troubles we arrived safely home. The trip was a blast and I can't wait to go again next summer!

Fourth of July Celebration

The fourth started out with waking up early to save our seats for the parade. We ended up with great spots on the side of the road even though we were crowded out a little bit. Both Michelle and Nathan were in the parade for gymnastics and DARE.

After the parade we hurried back to the house to get ready for our barbecue since Dad had invited a few of his home teaching families over. The girls made salads, Brock made a dutch oven dessert with the help of Michelle, and my Dad fired up our mini grill. Everyone had such a great time eating and talking they stayed over for almost 4 hours. Melanie, McKayla, Marie, and Liz sang songs together on the piano for almost that entire time.

Nearing 5 pm though we had to end the so that everyone could go home and get ready for the fireworks. Brock and I headed to his house to join up with his family who was heading for a friend's house right on the river. We had to be their really early so that we got in before the road closed, thats how close we were to where the famous Melaleuca show was being set off. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of this part but we had a great time walking around the green belt to pass the time, meeting up with high school friends, playing Apples to Apples with my family when we ran into where they were sitting, and eating more delicious barbecue food. When it came time for the fireworks we returned to our perfect seats and enjoyed the show. The fireworks were spectacular and filled the entire sky right above our heads, we were so close I had little pieces of cardboard fall on me. This was by far the best time I have ever seen the annual firework show, I'm so glad Brock's family shared their excellent seats with me :)