the momma.

I really like my mom.  I talk to her every.single.day.  Sometimes twice. 

This weekend she came for a visit and it was GREAT!  It was fun showing her our apartment and all the fancy new things Rexburg's added since last July. 

She came with her friend Teri, and Teri's nieces Elsa & Hayley.  Elsa is coming to school up here in January and this trip was designed to get her even MORE excited about it.  And because everyone's first impression of Rexburg needs to be in the summer... otherwise they'll never come back. 

They got here Thursday night and I took them to Twizleberry for frozen yogurt - and to temporarily blind them with the bright green and orange walls.  Then we drove up the hill for a closer look at the temple.

sooo pretty  :)

Friday morning we woke up bright and early for a quick tour of our apartment before we headed to campus to give Elsa a little look around.  There's quite a bit of construction going on, so we had to do a lot of weaving in & out & around & through the buildings, but I think we covered quite a bit of ground!  We went into the new BYU-I Center [or "devotatorium" as I like to call it] which was a first even for me.  Then we did a little shopping at the University Store and had lunch in the Crossroads to give everyone the full experience.

Then it was time for CORN-ON-A-STICK.  I've been hyping it up to everyone all semester, so it was pretty permanent on the to-do list.  We even waited around for a bit because it wasn't quite ready when we got there so eagerly at exactly 4pm.  Needless to say - it did not disappoint.

please ignore that i'm the whitest of them all - i live in idaho.

that's my lover... yep.

We also did a little bit of shopping at Hemming Village.  This is John - enjoying himself immensely at Lulu&Oliver.

he's got tea parties d.o.w.n.

On Saturday we ended up having a LOT more time to explore the town because of a little scheduling mix-up with a play we were supposed to go to...  Oops.

So - what better way to spend some extra time in south-eastern Idaho than at BEAR WORLD!!

It was a lot of fun!  John even had a good time!!  And we got some huckleberry honey from the gift shop. 

And after driving through the animal enclosures we found this sign where you can measure yourself against a bear...

almost there...

for reals!

And seriously... no trip to Bear World would be complete without this:

me and john - just need some baby bears!  haha.

Teri, Hayley, Elsa and my momma.

The pictures are pretty dark - it was a really nice and sunny day.  Good for hanging out at the petting zoo, bad for taking souvenir pictures.

After our adventure at Bear World we headed into Idaho Falls to do a little shopping.  [It was technically a "girl's trip" after all...]  John was such a champ hanging out at the mall for so long, going in and out of stores, sitting outside dressing rooms...  I did maybe bribe him with a prize and a snack  :)

Later on Saturday night we went to see 17 Miracles at the dollar theater.  The movie was good.  But after the movie we had Cocoa Bean cupcakes!  MmmMmMmMmmMMm.  So delicious.

Overall, it was a great weekend.  It was so much fun being with my momma and all the girls.

And now...  SEVEN WEEK BREAK!!

HP 7 part 2

Take two.

Yeah, we're that nerdy!

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wrap it up.

Do you want to be bored out of your life?

Then you came to the right place!

Let's start with the laundry.

This was just one load.  I was too exhausted after folding it all to even attempt getting the rest of the towels out of the dryer.  They're probably still in there...

Up next is the 8th Stake Summerpalooza!  John and I were part of the planning committee.  We were also in charge of the "tug o' ward" competition and making all the signs.  One day I'll learn how to take real pictures of important things... 

It was a little windy...

So we taped some of the signs to the ground... 

I was extremely proud of that bracket... It is HARD to organize a tournament with eleven teams.  But the 99th ward kicked some serious booty.  [Our ward lost in the first round... John was pretty disappointed.]  But the Summerpalooza was great!  We had hamburgers and hotdogs and icecream.  There was a DJ and a balloon-man and pie- and watermelon-eating contests.  If I hadn't been soo dang tired that day I would have wandered around and taken more pictures.

Sometime when John's at work [from 8pm - midnight] I go out for ice cream and bring him a treat.  This particular adventure to DQ they gave me a blizzard with the largest chunks of peanut butter cups I have ever seen. 

In decorating news...  I put up some plates to try and liven up the dining area.

And I painted our plain-jane boring bread-box a fun summer color!  Some of the lines are a little squiggly... don't judge me.

Finally - we cleaned our apartment.  Remember when I spilled oatmeal all over the carpet and my foot??  Well, my mom's coming to visit this weekend so we decided it was time to really clean things up. 

Look how big the living room looks without any furniture!

The kitchen was a little crowded tho...

Well, my momma gets here TONIGHT so I should probably go clean my room... haha.

spiders.

Ew.  Yuck.  Gross.

There are spiders all over the place here!  And by "all over the place"  I mean that they're taking over the bathroom. 

Seriously. 

I don't know where they're coming from - but my guess is the crack between the floor and the molding.  John says there's no way a spider could fit through that small of a space.  But he's wrong.

They're just stupid harmless daddy-long-legs.  But I still hate them.

firsties.

This weekend John and I went to our FIRST midnight movie showing together.  And we also went on our FIRST camp-out together.

The movie was - you guessed it - HARRY POTTER!!  I love Harry Potter.  I love love love love Harry Potter.  It's kind of a disease.

Anyway, since we went to the showing in Idaho Falls, we made a date night out of it.  We headed down at about 7 for dinner [and to get a decent parking space] and there was already a line outside the theater.  So we ate at TGIFridays - with a 15% off coupon!!  After dinner we walked over to Target to waste a little bit of time.  John got a football, and I got some paper-lantern lights for our little patio, and we got a bunch of candy for the movie  :)

At dinner with our HP tickets!!

John waiting in line...

The line on the right was for all the theaters.  On the left is just the line for our theater.  Crazy.

So, that was Thursday night.  We got home from the movie at about 3:30 am, and John had a class at 7:45.  Needless to say, when he got home from class he crashed!  He was out until about 3 in the afternoon - when we had to start getting ready for the ward camp-out.

I made John rent us a tent from the school, and we packed our air-mattress and some snacky snacks and headed out!  The campsite was in Archer, which is only about 20 minutes away.  It's so great living in a place that has so much nature so close by... except for the bugs.  I hate bugs.

Driving down to the campsite.  Tina got a few hefty scratches but shhhh - don't tell my dad.

Isn't Idaho pretty?!

 I took that picture from inside the car.  Before the bugs had a chance to attack me.  But we had some bug spray and one of the fancy bug repelling fans.  So we didn't get eaten alive.  I think we made it home with just one major bug bite each. 

I would have taken more pictures, but I accidentally took a nap as soon as our tent was set up, and then my phone died.  I promise we actually went camping.  There were tents and a fire and s'mores and everything.  AND some genius brought Reese's cups to make the s'mores with.  It was heavenly.  I'm never eating a regular s'more ever again.

more activities.

I've been feeling a little crafty lately...  My friend Jana brought over some fabric that she wanted to make into curtains for her living room - and there was just enough left over to make a couple pillows for their couch!  I'd seen a pillow like this on some website or other and decided that I'd try to make it.

I think it turned out pretty good!  The ruffled part is a bit poofy - and I didn't really like it at first, but it's growing on me.

* * *

And for some reason, everyone around me is having a baby.  Unfortunately - all these babies are living in Las Vegas, so I can't smooch their faces  :(  But I can spend some of my free time making them cutesy onesies!  I got the idea for these at Happy Together.  I loved the "cute as a button" theme - but the print just wasn't my style.  So instead I fished around our spare change jar for all those buttons that come with new clothes but never get used and came up with this!

The tag says "for Lyla, who's cute as a button!"

 I made another one for my cousin's new baby.  Little Anistyn is the only one of her siblings with dark hair - which is impressive if you've ever seen a picture of my extended family.  I found these super bright buttons while I was wandering around Walmart and loved them.  So I did the same thing for Ani-Lou's onesie - and I made a little fabric envelope to put it in.

I only hope the onesies fit the little girlies by the time it gets to them!  Babies grow so gosh darn fast!!

* * *

In the kitchen - things have been a little different.  I hate cooking when it's hot outside.  Mostly because that means it's already hot inside - without the help of an oven.  So while I was wandering around Walmart I picked up some popsicle molds!!  I just mix up the Crystal Light on-the-go packets with half as much water and a heaping spoonful of sugar.  Poor it in, freeze 'em, and enjoy!

I tried to get fancy here and do two layers, but most of them blended together anyway.

This is the peach mango flavor.  Oh man, best.popsicle.ever.

And to even out all that sugar:

John picked brussel-sprouts as our vegetable last night.  That's right - we ate them voluntarily.  No buttery goodness required.

the fourth...

I've been a pretty lazy blogger recently.  I've been a pretty lazy everything recently.  Our friends recommended that we check out The Cosby Show on Netflix, and ever since then I just can't stop watching it.  It's hilarious!  I love it.

But, for all three people who read this - I'm sure you're just dying to know what we did on the Fourth of July.  So, here you go:

We started off the day at the Rexburg Whoopee Days Parade.  [Don't ask me why it's called that. I have no idea.]  Every year there's a parade down the entire stretch of Main Street.  All the floats throw candy out for the little kids, and the dairy gives out free milk!!  Well, supposedly.  We didn't stay all the way through this time - we're very busy people, you know.

John and the Snoopy float.

Broulim's giant shopping cart / go-cart... complete with groceries!

And FREE hotdogs  :)

After the parade we went straight over to our friends [the Moseley's] apartment for some dee.lish.us. hamburgers and hotdogs.  We watched a little Funniest Home Videos, and then played a little bocci ball with the Jensen's.

I made a layered drink for the barbecue - but that picture is on John's phone.  So you might never get to see it.

After that, we went home for a quick nap before FIREWORKS!!

We drove out to Idaho Falls with our friends the Potter's for the annual Melaleuca fireworks show.  It's *supposedly* one of the biggest shows this side of the Mississippi...

Don't judge me for my blurry fireworks pictures - I was using my phone.

If you turn down the volume, you won't have to try and guess what we're laughing at.

The drive home from Idaho Falls is always a doozy after the fireworks show.  So we opted for going the long-way and driving fast, instead of the short way going 5 mph the whole time.  And on that drive we hit 150,000 miles on my car!!  It was a big day for everyone  :)

So I was a little late with the picture... I was sleeeeepyy.

 John and I had a great first Fourth of July together!  We got to share it with great friends, and eat good food.  It was good times.

[Between the nap and leaving for fireworks we went to eat at Frontier Pies, again. We just love getting our sodas in jars!!] 

summertime :)

I like the summertime. 

I do not like being hot.  Which I am, 100% of the day in our apartment.  I would love for us to be able to move apartments and get a little A/C action... but that probably won't happen.  So I'm going to try and be a little less complainy and teach myself how to keep cool without any artificial help.  [And to be clear - fans are not artificial... neither is sticking my head in the freezer.]

Think ::popsicle wrappers littering the kitchen floor::  and we'll be on the same page!

Right now I'm heading to Walmart to look for the molds to make your own popsicles, and a large plastic pitcher to make fun summery juice drinks. 

Oh, and if your curious about what we did on the Fourth, don't worry.  That post is on it's way.  As soon as my phone and computer get over themselves and decide to communicate again.

And if you love me, you'll e-mail John and tell him to buy me this puppy!!  I call him gerbil-dog  :)

what we've been up to...

Since tomorrow is the Fourth and our activities will probably overshadow the other things we did this weekend I'm going to make you sit through another photo-essay  :)

Here are the "book" shelves I put up in our room.  What do you think I should display on them?  Remember - manly stuff, because they're on John's side.

Look what John left on the bathroom counter!!
How rude.

Oh, and I got a perm!  When we went to Utah last weekend I went to see my lovely friend Meg at the Paul Mitchell school and she did an amazing job!!

I made this d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. enchilada recipe the other night.  Honey Lime Enchiladas.  Try them.  Your life will never be the same.

Speaking of food...  we love Arby's.

And speaking of things that I made...  I wrapped the weird piece of plastic that tops the blinds with burlap.  I think it adds a little bit of character to the kitchen  :)

For the past few weeks there's been a little bit of road construction by our apartment.  Um - scratch that.  Since we moved to Rexburg there's been a whole bunch of road construction.  It was better for a day, and then we went to the store and saw this:

You can't really tell, but this sign is posted at the only entrance/exit to our complex.

 And there are barricades on the street around our complex coming from any direction.

There's one more - but we don't generally drive that way so I haven't gotten a picture of it.  Yet.  Luckily they left a wide enough space so our car can fit through.  Otherwise we'd have to park on the side of the highway and hop the fence.

In other news, we cleaned our kitchen yesterday!  I even scrubbed underneath the stove, and soaked the bowl/pan-type things under the coils.  They were pretty nasty.

Since the kitchen was so sparkly clean, we didn't want to cook anything and mess it up.  So we went to Big Judd's for lunch!

Don't worry - I didn't let him eat it all by himself.

After Big Judd's we went home for a quick nap before going to our first ever Chuckars game!!  We went with our friends Shiloh and Trevor.  It was super fun!  Plus - we got free t-shirts!

Tomorrow we're going to the parade on main street and then having a barbecue with a few couples from our ward.  Then we'll go to Idaho Falls to watch the fireworks show!!  We're excited, and hope you all have a great Fourth of July!!