ZIONS NATIONAL PARK AT ANGELS LANDING!!

So we went to Zions National Park and it was SO MUCH FUN! :) the hike was forever long it seemed like but I loved every minute of it! (and we got a fantastic work out!) :) haha We hiked to the top of Angels Landing and it was absolutely gorgeous! The 3 hours it took to get up there was so worth it! even though we only stayed up there for like 10 minutes haha...but it was getting dark so we couldn't stay long! Seriously that was the hardest but best hike I have ever been on! It was way intense! lots of rock climbing... which I LOVE! :)

We had some other people come with us as well! It ended up being Me Madi Porter, her boyfriend Jesse James, Meagan Young her "friend" Sean and Brittney Glenn! it was so much fun! We almost died a few times because its so steep but hey!... whats a rock climb without some near death experiences right!!?? ;)

Jazz Game!!

For an early birthday present I took Jeremy to a Jazz Game! (pretty much is favorite thing ever!) The whole thing was a surprise... haha it was so fun! I invited his sister Emily and her date (Ryan Jacobsen) to come with us! we left early so we could go to Temple Square and the Joseph Smith movie! It was a lot of fun just to walk and joke around! After that we went to Crown Burger! After we ate dinner we told them that was it and we were going home.. they were all uh ok. (because it was only like 6:00) so we walked out to the car and Emily and I both said we needed to get our jackets out of the trunk! so we popped the trunk and when we did there was a sign that said "jazz game anyone?" They were pretty excited! well then we pulled out Jazz jerseys and everyone put them on..






Well me, without thinking shut the trunk!! Low and behold Emilys purse was in the trunk! it had the keys, our parking permit... everything! haha it was funny! (well now it is!....it wasn't at the time!) ;) so we called my padre and luckily Greg and Ellie were up visiting and were about to come home!! so they were able to just drop my spare key after the jazz game was over! so it worked out! well since we (emily and I) bought the tickets so late...lets just say our seats weren't the best... haha they were at the VERY top row! it was so funny...the walk up there seemed forever!!

We had so much fun though! we laughed our guts out and our seats turned out good because it was pretty much just us! there wasn't a lot of people around us! so we ended up having so much fun!! :) oh and the jazz won so that was good too! ;) haha

The Family BBQ!!

So one day Jess and I got talkin about home and what we missed and talk about BBQ's came up! so we decided we were going to have a BBQ... but then the bad news came... they don't really sell grills here! we found one but it was REALLY really small! so we thought our BBQ night was out... sad story!

well then one day we found out that Joe (our Chinese brother...) had a grill custom made so we could have our BBQ! how nice is that!? and let me tell you... it was SO fun!

Jessica, Kylee and I wanted to help so we offered to cook something! we choose good old fashioned BBQ chicken!! it was quite the experience! we had to go to the fresh fruit market and buy some chickens... (don't worry.. they were still alive! nice and fresh!) it didn't take long to kill em though! so we had the experience of killing and chopping our own chicken! it was scary chopping it up though! the knife they gave me was the biggest knife ever! Kim (Chinese sister) she is the cook of and for the family she ended up cutting it instead... haha so then we got to cook it! (oh!! and thanks family for setting me up with the recipe!) they LOVED It! haha my chicken was ALL gone! the only left over chicken we had was the stuff that was still raw because we couldn't finish it! we had so much food there! we had lamb, chicken, squid, fish, corn, eggplant, hot dogs! (ya that's right! REAL hot dogs!!) but they don't eat them with ketchup and mustard with buns... they eat them plain with honey! not my favorite but oh well its china! what do ya do? we also had fruit and watermelon! it was the best ever! aww so good! There was some other food to but i don't remember what else we had....

after dinner we played a mean game of Monopoly! ah! felt like home... well expect that I got my trashed kicked! that hasn't happened in a very very long time! Andy beat us! but Chinese monopoly was a little different then our monopoly! (especially my awesome credit card version!!) :) all in all it was a GREAT night and it felt a little more like home! my Chinese family is awesome!

Row Row Row your boat!...well kinda....

Today We made sailboats in class! the kids loved it! Especially the part where they got to sail them! some of the kids couldn't get their boat to move haha it was so funny to watch them blow the sail! so much fun! :) I just love them!

if this is what I REALLY look like to chinese people...I will shoot myself! ;) haha

So that night we went and saw the Pagoda Jessica had a BRILLIANT idea! We saw this artist and she said... "we should get our picture drawn!" haha so we thought hmm... ok! that could be fun! oh my gosh! we sat there for TWO HOURS posing! I felt like a little kid because I couldn't sit still and after 30 minutes of me just sitting there smiling he still wasn't done with my mouth! So I was like this is retarded! So I stopped smiling and i was getting grumpy because he wouldn't let us move! haha he kept getting mad at me was like "Smile" well he would actually say it because he didn't know ANY English... he would just grunt and point and me and smile, then drop his smile then smile again so i would get the hint... lol So i would smile and then we would look down and draw and I would make a funny face at him! haha it was awful! I seriously couldn't sit there! then there was this other guy who secretly drew a picture of me and gave it to me afterwards... haha when i saw it I was like OH MY GOSH! He had to draw one of my when I was mad while i had to sit there! So i look like a hobbit in the group picture and then i looked so mad in the other one! lol I showed my head teacher and she said I looked like a Disney princess but a mad version of it!... I didn't really know how to take that.... haha

the BIG GOOSE PAGODA

This is a temple! It was HUGE! we decided to go at night because there is this light/water show and its suppose to be amazing! So we decided to go! we were suppose to get on bus number 23 so we looked for a bus station and finally found one! we got on the bus and headed for the Pagoda! (so we thought) we were on the bus forever! and when we came to the end of the line the bus driver said we had to get off! the only problem was there was no pagoda... so we showed him a map and he starts laughing and was like "ok ok..." He drove us to this ally type thing and we were like what the heck? So we all got off the bus (me Jess Azure and Micky) and he took us to the bus station where they switched drivers! we got on bus number 23 all right but on the wrong side of the road! haha what idiots we are! oops! so they helped us get on track and to make a long story short we got there just as the show was ending! but we decided to stay and look around! we played in the water and looked at the temple and some statues! it was actually way fun!