August Fun

Well the rest of August sure passed by quick! Our most recent adventure outside of the state of AZ was in UT for James' 10 year reunion. We stopped in SLC and met up with my Grandma Brinkle (who I haven't seen for 5 years!) and visited with her. That was real fun to see her.

After SLC we took our trip to the Bountiful Temple. That was the first visit there for me and I loved it - it's really gorgeous! Kevin and Debra (James' parents) were able to join us so that was nice. James and I were head bobbers in the temple though - we'd had to wake up at 3:45 that morning to make our flight! But we still had a good experience in the temple.

Our next stop was of course the cabin! Here James and Gavin are enjoying the weather, the scenery, the cabin experience, the smart phones...wait a minute...

Kevin and Debra


And a nice surprise for us to see Marilyn's family come to the cabin. I always enjoy seeing the cousins. I know the girls at least :)

More enjoying of company and weather

Here's a picture from James' reunion. It was really fun for him to see his old friends and see how they've changed and where they're at in life. It was fun for me to meet them too!


In Brinkle-Family news, my Aunt Patti got her mission call! She's going to be in the office of the Milwaukee Wisconsin mission. She said she could already feel the cold in her bones! :) She leaves for the MTC on September 17th. Congrats Patti! We're so proud of you!

In our little corner of the world, I turned a whoppin quarter of century old on the 27th! whoo hoo for 25! :) For my birthday (well on the day before but I still counted it as my birthday too heehee), my wonderful husband took me to see one of our favorite comedians, Brian Regan! I was so excited! He took me to Chilies before and Coldstone after! It was such a fun night and we had sore cheeks and tummies from laughing so hard! I really did have a great birthday and thanks to all who called, sang, facebooked, visited, etc wishes for me. I really appreciate them all!

We were in row 3 for the concert! I tried to get a good picture of Brian but I didn't have my camera with me and my phone...well, it's a phone not a camera so this was the best I could get :) Oh it was a great time :)

My parents came up for my birthday too. We fixed dinner at home and it was delicious! Broiled salmon, squash/zuchinni/carrots, and rice pilaf. Oooh...so good! We topped it off with funfetti birthday cake! I just realized as I am typing this post that we had watermelon too but didn't eat it! Oh well, more for me now :) Anyways, it was a great birthday! I'm looking forward to another 25 years :)

Camping Trip August 2010

After living in Tucson for over a year now, James and I finally got to experience a night of camping on Mt. Lemmon. We were so excited when we were invited to go up there. We bought our tent a little bit ago (see a previous post) and also I'd gotten my own camelback for Valentine's day. So, I was excited to use all our new stuff. :)

It was a great time! We got there around 10:30 in the morning and we started the day off with a 3.2 mile hike. It was a great hike - good exercise! At the end of the hike there were what people called "pools" but it was really just where a mountain stream ran through and was calm enough to get in. It was so cold! But it felt wonderful after the hike. We sat there and ate lunch.

We hiked back and made our way to our camp sites where we set up our tents. We played games, started the fire, had chili dogs for dinner with smores to finish it off. Actually, James and I ate an entire bag of trail mix (a whole sandwich bag full of cashews, almonds and peanut butter m'n'ms) prior to those chili dogs. I didn't even eat a smore because I was so full!

The weather was perfect and we were very comfortable sitting around the fire and sleeping in our tent. The company was great too. We went with some families in our ward (Lewis, Jensen, Hoenes, and Millar) and it was really fun to get to know them better. And a great time was had by all :)

Erica and Payson Lewis and also Kenzie Hoenes

Patrick Lewis, James & Melony, Pason Lewis and Taylor & Brooke Hoenes

We're playing "Koob" here. You have to hit those wooden blocks with a dowel that you throw at them. It was great!

We gave the Hoenes' a good run for their money playing this game. They called it beginners luck but James and I know better. They did win though...

The Millar's son celebrated his first birthday on the campout. The younger ladies of the group definitely took full advantages of the festivities and got their share of the catepillar cupcakes :)

Trip Down Memory Lane

This is one of my more random posts. Nothing really happened I was working on my mission scrapbook and just loving remembering some of the crazy/random happenings of Oklahoma. I thought I'd share some. They are mostly disaster related :)

This is my apartment building burning. I was a week (to the day) into the mission :)

The remains of the apartment building. The one remaining window in the left of the picture is ours :) It still has the Jesus picture in the window. Haha, man that was a mess :)

Hailing during a sunny day - random. Weather changes in a second in OK.

The ice. Oh...the ice. Our car had fangs :) All of what you see was attached to the car. I filmed and took pictures while my greenie scraped :) The ice was as thick as my finger.

This particular storm was real bad. A lot of the city had major damage to trees and powerlines. It was right around Christmas time of 2007.

Some of my other random happenings included melting a plastic lid in our oven, having our apartment flood, driving through 5 inches of rain that came in 2 days and going to a tornado shelter 3 straight days in a row. I LOVE OK! :)