IN WHICH WE CELEBRATE MY BIRTHDAY

birthday weekend kicked off with a thursday drive to pocatello so that mikie could take the GRE. glamorous pocatello! the night before mikie's test, we hightailed it to costco and bought our very own pizza. let me tell you, we have missed eating that pizza. long live costco pizza! and smoothies! and everything else! because lw + mw = costco family forever!! (if sam's club reads this, will they take away our membership?)

the next morning, mikie took the dang four hour test (hooray! it's over!) and we celebrated with cafe rio. i just want to publicly thank cafe rio for never ever failing me.

we then headed back home and took shameless selfies to keep ourselves occupied. i don't know what it is, but that drive from rexburg to pocatello kills me everytime. i hate that stretch so much.

we lounged around the house for a bit, then headed to walk around the farmer's market. it was hot. i hate hot. why is it so hot? thank you for air conditioning. while we were there, we found these beautiful peonies. it was my birthday weekend, so we splurged. i love having fresh, beautiful flowers in my house! the best part is that several of the stems had buds that weren't open yet but now they are. i love flowers!

that night, our friends the gardners asked us if we wanted to do something before they move to arizona. of course we did! so we decided to make smores over at the campgrounds. it was beautiful out, except for the mosquitoes. i don't miss mosquitoes. there are lots of memories that include counting 20+ mosquito bites on each leg in the summer time. 20+ is not an exaggeration. side note: i heard that alaska is clean out of bug spray because of the mass amounts of mosquitoes.

on my actual day of birth, saturday, mikie and i celebrated with hot dogs and snow cones. snow cones are quite possibly the best invention, after otter pops and air conditioning. we browsed porter's to my hearts content and didn't get anything (go me!)
then we went home to enjoy our air conditioning. once again, why is it so hot!? gross. later in the evening, we went to pick up our friends and off to driggs we went!

obviously, there is the obligatory 'aint no party like a driggs party cuz a driggs party don't stop.' (but really it does because driggs is too small of a town to host such a party.)

there were thousands and thousands of people came watch the festivities. two of the original beach boys showed up, and there was the promise of a spectacular fireworks show. i was extremely concerned that we were going to get caught in traffic for hours. we watched the show for a bit, and then the 1812 overture started to play and i immediately became concerned cause the 1812 overture is always the finale song. always. of course, i was right and we left before the huge crowds and made it home in less than an hour. you could probably call it a christmas miracle.

birthday weekend ended with a healthy trip to taco bell, which we all know is the best way to end birthday weekend.

sidenote: i'm the same age that michael was when we got married, and that is so weird to me.

A WHOLE BUNCH OF UNRELATED THINGS

//my brother graduates in two days. it seems like he was just leaving for basic the other day and now all of a sudden he's about to be graduated. proud little sister right here.

//i think i was the last one to figure out you could download spotify on your computer. welcome to the 21st century, self. (also, if you hear lots of jesse mccartney coming from my place...... it's not me.)

//it's really hot here, and i guess it's really hot at home too. all my friends posting about the alaskan heat reminds me of my childhood days of arguing for a fan at nighttime cause nobody has a/c there. (alaska please be that nice when i visit! PLZ!) also, i'm thankful for a/c here.

//we FINALLY found a good hot dog place in rexburg. this is monumental because even though you'd think it shouldn't be hard to find a good hot dog... it is. cause i live in rexburg.

//my friend haleigh showed us this video. slightly morbid but it's in a really cute way so it's fine. then she told us there's an iphone game to go along with it and did you know that mikie is good at every game that he plays? homeboy has skillz.

//i won clue for the first time. also none of my friends save two will play clue with us. who doesn't like playing clue!?!?!?!?! really rude. steph please come visit me so we can play clue. (and eat cafe rio/eat froyo/watch the hobbit.) (once i heard froyo being called frogurt and that sounds really gross.)

//we are going, we are going, we are going to brazil!

//the jehovah witnesses left a pamphlet on my door. YOU GUYS. JWs! IN REXBURG! that's crazy. also the pamphlet was for an event in ogden, soooo not even the same state. i guess we won't be going.

//here's a bunch of pictures from my phone.

^^look how pretty organized rows of apple trees are!

^^i'm really bad at croquet. mikie, on the other hand, is very good. how bad am i? my friends caught up with me at the third wicket. the only difference is that they were on the way back.

^^this was the sky after we got done playing. nature is wonderful. God is good.

^^wild roses always remind me of watering all the plants growing up. we had a few bushes in the front and backyard and they were hot pink. 

^^this always happens when we are in a hurry to go somewhere. somebody blocks us in and we can't get out. c'mon people!

^^look what's baaaaaaack!

IN CASE YOU WERE WONDERING, WE'RE ALIVE.

i wish i had some great excuse for not blogging like, "oh we were out of the country in bora bora and didn't have internet! for a month!" how great of an excuse would THAT be? bora bora? for a month!? it would be the best vacation in the world! anyway, so here we are in rexburg. nothing exciting. also. it's june which means a) it's my birthday month, b) MIKIE GRADUATES NEXT MONTH! we're very excited. and c.) we go to ALASKA for the first time since we left in 2010. ALASKA! THE LAST FRONTIER! BEARS TOOTH! TACO KING! MOUNTAINS AND STUFF! i take it back, i would rather go to alaska for a month than bora bora... or would i...

today in nursery, we introduced the bubble machine so us nursery leaders could stop hyperventilating from blowing so many bubbles at the kids. let's just say it was hilarious. they did not like it. all the littles stood around the bubble machine staring at it, not touching any bubbles. i know for a fact they were judging us and thought it was a poor substitute for human interaction. and then all of a sudden, one of the boys became that maniac fish from finding nemo and sat down and started laughing and giggling and grabbing the bubbles. half the time he just sat there grinning from ear to ear at the bubbles. working in nursery has got to be my favorite calling. i don't think there's anything better than holding and teaching and playing with toddlers. i always tell mikie about all the funny things the babes do and maybe it's not as funny when i tell him but gosh, i love all those kids so much.

anyway, here are some pictures to prove that we aren't dead.

^^i forced mikie to walk with me at the orchards and then we got allergies really bad. stupid allergies.

^^at the local farmer's market with our favorite people haleigh + brad

^^we went to mesa falls and didn't pay for parking and then suddenly there were these large flying insects everywhere. i'm telling you we were being punished.

see? we're alive.