Sunday, September 25, 2011

The Apple Shed

Remember how when you were a kid you had that favorite place to go on Saturday mornings? You'd get up at 8am, eat some cornflakes, jump in the ol' Lumina with Dad in his torn jeans, old t-shirt, and worn sneakers, drive to Chase-Pitkin and wander, look at at your "baby kitchen" (the huge beautiful model kitchen in the back of the store you always got lost searching for), go home, listen to blaring Petra or Whitheart while Dad sang along and did dishes, and went to the Apple Shed in the fall to grab a sample apple and stare at the bees and the goats.  Chase-Pitkin closed years ago, replaced by Secor, but the Apple Shed is still alive and kicking.

Last week we stopped by and enjoyed the familiar smells, sights, and sounds.
The sample apple bin that I always had trouble reaching into, the bees, the corn slide (relatively new), and the goats, sheep, ducks, geese, sparrows, and the playground (also relatively new).

The store is bigger than it used to be, they just recently added on a back half, but it's still as beautiful and has the same smells and feel it always has.







My sample apple

















Goats eating dinner

Ducks and a chicken







Geese

Sheep



Punkins



The Billy Goat Gruff's bridge


Mooooore punkins!

Apple trees

They go as far as the eye can see


I love the Apple Shed!!!!


Tuesday, September 6, 2011

First Day of School...

Today, September 6th 2011, marks the first day of ME being a SENIOR! Scary, right??

I woke up at 6:10am. My alarm was set for 5:45, but it didn't go off even though I tested it last night. Turns out, I had it set as "follow profile" which means if my phone's on silent, so is my alarm. I changed it, don't worry.
I took a shower, got all ready for the first day of school, and went downstairs to get my coffee. I had set the coffee maker to go off at 6:10... it wasn't ready. Of course. I still can't figure that thing out.
Can you imagine my mood after waking up late, finding out my coffee wasn't made, and being cold? (Not pretty, in case you don't know me very well.) I was wearing jeans (still slightly damp- didn't have time to dry off from being washed last night), purple v-neck shirt, black cardigan, and black ballet slippers.  Mascara and foundation, silver dangly earrings, and hair down.

We left the house tired, cold, and coffee-less at 6:38am. The bus was supposed to come at 6:44am. I spent the next 35 minutes whining about the cold, slapping mosquitoes, enjoying my nice icy feet with freezing water squishing between my toes, and complaining about how late the dumb bus was. After a few minutes my mommy came out with coffee for us (which helped brighten things up a bit). At 7:15am the bus came around the corner one mile up the road. School starts at 7:30. Yeah.

To make a long story short, I got to school 15 horrible minutes late, found another bus full of late kids, walked to my school (they decided we should be dropped off at the middle school instead of the high school, because of the construction (which will continue until an estimated December 2012)), found my drivers ed teacher and Ashley, skipped signing in, and walked towards the cheese-wedge car.
I got to drive first (only because I begged). I got in, drove through town and over side-roads to the Lyons (eeew) high school. I got out, the next girl got in, and we drive (shakily) back to the school. I have been driving since July 29th 2010. This girl has been driving a couple months, only in her little neighborhood of car-less streets and yield signs. 'Nuff said. It was scary. We were forced to have to think about whether we would have to get out and pick up cones around a truck on the side of the road if we happened to "bumpbumpbump" over them.
We got back alive (no, I'm sorry. she wasn't that bad. The teacher only had to grab the steering wheel to help her get around a corner once), went to study hall, choir (~89 people- eek!), advanced child psych, lunch (in the choir room), and finally physics.

"You're gonna introduce yourselves. Along with a super power you've always wished you had!"
Easy! Invisibility. So I could go anywhere and do anything.
As we were listening to a story about why we really need the lab safety contracts, the fire alarm went off. "beep!" then stopped. Then went off "beep!" then stopped. Then went off with no stopping. We evacuated to the parking lot (next to our new and improved tennis courts- we're so cool, we have more courts than people on the team! We sure know how to use our money!) and stood there, enjoying the cool air and the loud people. After a little over an hour, the teachers grouped together, decided not to tell us what was happening, and moved us to the middle school auditorium. For over an hour. Yay.
Apparently, the construction guys blew something or something... Whatever. They almost killed us all... almost. They almost killed my phone. I put it in my bag for drivers ed, and never took it out. Poor thing!
I missed the rest of physics, English, and PIG.

That was my big first day of school, how was yours? :)

Monday, September 5, 2011

2nd Semi-Annual Mall Trip!!!!!!!!

Wednesday Ashley and I went to Eastview mall (conveniently located across the street from a Starbucks and an Olive Garden) while my mom had lunch with friends at Olive Garden. Last time, our friend Josh came with us, but he had his senior pictures this time :'( It wasn't the same without you, Josh (but it was still AWESOME!). The last trip we had was December 2009... haha

From 11:30 to 1 we ate lunch in the also-conveniently-located food court (we saw a seeing-eye dog that made my day), wandered JC Penney and the rest of the mall, and took illegal pictures of beautiful things. I put on make-up behind a hat rack in the middle of JCP, tried on hats, and played with stuff in Claire's...
Then we went to Starbucks and each bought a Venti Caramel Frappaccino... :) Happiness to the max.

We sat in the sitting area on a couch together, and talked about everything- stories by Ashley, stories by other people, nieces and nephews (hopefully in the near future), the huge group of deaf people and how we wanted to learn to communicate by sign-language, and we watched people. We laughed at (and with) people, guessed names for people, and just watched them walk- some walked fast, some wandered, some held hands (we even saw a few elderly couples ;), some walked only on the gray squares, some skipped, some talked on phones, some wandered back and forth wearing scary bear hats, and some signed as they walked... it was awesome. I love watching people.

After two hours of hanging out and just talking and laughing and drinking coffee and watching and listening, we got a call from my mom saying she was done with her lunch, so we packed up and moved on.

After the mall, we went to a good friend's house, gave her something I was supposed to give her a week ago, and then on to my aunt's house. Ashley and I talked to my cousin for maybe 30 minutes, just sitting around enjoying our silliness and my cousin's cat, then off to home we went!
It was an epic day at the mall, I would do it again and again, especially if I got Starbucks every time!

Ashley also blogged about our epic trip- here!!!!!


Simultaneous pics 
So... much... food!
But so delicious!

Ha. Got you!

Ashley's favorite color!

Eeek! Huge-heeled shoe!

Fairy shoes :)

Naked-foot shoes!

We didn't even bother trying these ones on

My future bed

Awwwwwwwww

Nice shades, eh?

Mmmmmmm... Brings back happy memories

Got you again!

Nice

Not so nice

Weird

...no explanation

Double picture

Serious

Adorable little water-squirter

SO CUTE!

Merry-go-round!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trying to use the chains from her shirt as a necklace...

Thursday, September 1, 2011

10th Annual LIFE Group Camping Trip!

Every year for the past 9 years, my family has gone camping with our "family", a small group from church.  We go to my uncle-like friend's (remember him from my birthday party?) parents' private campground on the bluffs and just... camp! 
In the past, we brought our pop-up camper, but over the past year it sustained some *cough cough* injuries, making it very probably non-road-worthy. So we rented a cabin. Also a first this year, Jessie could come!
We spent Saturday hiking, swimming, and eating, watched TV at the cabin (oooooh! TV while camping!!!!) Saturday night, and woke up Sunday morning to go to church on the bluffs. It was so beautiful. The pictures would not do it justice. During our short church service, we saw an eagle. 
Let me describe how the service went- arrive at the campground, put lunch stuff in the little cabin, and walk out to the bluffs. Spread out blanket, get the dog set up with breakfast and water, and set up chairs. Make sure everyone arrives safely and semi-on time, and open with prayer. Pull out the ol' guitar and the song folders, and start singing! Mom pulls out her flute, steps back a few feet, and starts playing in harmony with the guitar and the voices. Owner of the campground has his beautiful dog, Lizzy, with him, so keep Jessie away from her (they met Saturday and Jessie thinks she needs to play today during church), and as you sing, stare out over the edge of the bluff at the striped water, the sail-boats (not many this year- it was too windy), and the sky blending with the water and distant land, momentarily interrupted by an eagle, soaring past you. Aaaah... Uncle-Friend (that's what I'll call him for now) talked about caring for the land we were given, not taking our fruit trees and rose bushes for granted, but helping them grow out and up to their full gorgeous potential.
We ate a typical-for-this-group huge lunch, went down the long, rocky, muddy, hilly path to the water, swam and took pictures, and then came back up, packed up the rest of our belongings, and headed home. 
I love camping. This was a different kind of camping from what I've done before, but we still got to experience the campground, this time with the bonus of extra friends Saturday, and Jessie :)

Getting camping groceries... and a teenager?

Scary dock outside our cabin

Our cabin!

Wee ride bicycle- can you tell?

The cute little buck we almost ran into

The food/socialize cabin

Jessie's favorite part- SPLASHING!

Heehee



Mo-Mo is not human! She's actually a sea-creature!
Sure, she looks perfectly human now...

Now she's getting up- Mom's figured out the
truth about her! "Back, sea-creature, back!"

It's coming! Grab your children and run!

I can just hear her scary slimy grumbly noises as she prepares
to leave the water...

AAAAAAHHHHHHHH! IT'S ON DRY LAND!

Getting used to the dry air... it takes a while, considering
she's been living under water for 38,585,895 years!

*whimper* It's alive!

Fire

Fire in negative

Showing off my s'more-eating talent
(and enjoying the bright lights)

Mmmmm... I love HUGS (in every way possible)! 

Looking out over the water...