Before school got out last year, my sister Laura, my mom, Rufus the dog, and baby girl Haley all came to visit me at school! It was fun. We walked around campus, ate at the cafeteria, posed by a giant bear, and Rufus chased a squirrel up a tree!
I got out of school about a week later. Scott was kind enough to drive up and get me. I had everything packed and ready to go when he got here, so we ate fast, and took off! He left home about 8am to get me, and we were home by 2pm. That even included waiting around for the cafeteria to open and eating before we left!
The next week, I started my second summer working crew at Sea World. It's a lot of fun, and I have always enjoyed it! This summer I had a chance to work on the Cirque de La Mer show, and Pets Rule again. I also got trained to drive a boat! This is a picture of the view of the bay from the top of the Zorb tower at Cirque stadium. I have several, but I didn't think I wanted to bore you with all the angles...
Another thing that happened this summer was a pelican took up residence for a few days on the dock at work! He ended up being a little sick or something, so the Aviary department came and took him away for some care. In the meantime, he allowed me to get SUPER close and take this picture! I named him Stan. Stan the Pelican!
Also this summer I took two summer school classes so I wouldn't have to spend a lot of my senior year taking Literature. I took a beginning Lit class, and a class on Shakespeare. I decided to take Shakespeare because here I am - a theater major - and I have never (until this last school year) been required to take or read anything by Shakespeare. He seems to be kind of a staple for theater, so I thought I'd brush up a little bit. :)
Anyway, both classes were taught by the same teacher, and one of the things we were required to do is make a creative project around something that we read or discussed in class. In my Shakespeare class, I made a tote bag and a pillow that had quotes from Hamlet on them. They turned out good, and since my teacher said Hamlet was her favorite play, many people did their projects based on Hamlet. My second project for the beginning Lit class was based off the story A Rose for Emily. A very quick recap: Emily is a lady who is old, reclusive, crazy and slightly revered by her small town. She dies at the beginning, and people reflect on weird things she has done during her life. However, after her funeral, they all go to her house, and find out that this man that she liked (she was a spinster) who disappeared one day was actually dead (for many, many years) and she had been sleeping next to his gross, moldy dead body the whole time! EWWWW!
So, I made a bottle of Arsenic (the supposed killing agent) and made it look all old and creepy, also adding an old dead rose... It turned out really cool, so I added a picture:
I ended up passing my classes (Yeah!) and in the meantime, I had the chance to work (once again) at ComicCon! I had to work at Sea World that day as well, so I didn't get to really go to any of the panels, plus I had no one to go with, so I just wandered the selling floor for an hour or so, and then went and helped out (sort of) at the Masquerade. I say "sort of" because my job ended up being to sit in a chair backstage and make sure no one bumped into a cable right next to my chair... Hmmm...
Well, ended up that the highlight of the day was seeing Hoops & Yoyo from the Hallmark cards there! They are so funny and cute! I took pictures!!!
I don't know who the crazy people are in the pictures I took. It's one of the bad things about ComicCon. You never get a picure WITHOUT weird crazies...
After ComicCon my sister Danielle and her family came to our house for a couple of weeks. My niece Tacey came earlier and went to girls camp. She also became my roommate at home! I have no pictures of this part of the summer, but it was also fun! My dad got the pool all fixed up for use, and that was WAY fun! I hope people will come for longer next summer, so I can swim more. Swimming is one of those things that you do alone only if you are really good at it and do laps for exercise. I'm not one of those people. I need company. :)
Toward the end of the summer I was given the opportunity to go to Bosie and visit my sister and her family! My sister Jilana's daughter Emmalee (my niece) was getting baptized, so we flew to Boise for the festivities over Labor Day weekend! It was the first time I had been in a plane since my trip to Disney World in 2007. I so seldomly fly, that it's still kind of a novelty.
Anyway, they have some HUGE, very fun craft stores in Idaho, so we had fun milling around one of them. I had my camera, and they had these silly Halloween headbands there, so we took a picture! Sometimes my camera doesn't do a great job of taking clear pictures. This was one of those times. Sad. :( In the picture (left to right) is me, Mom, Emmalee (in front), Josh (kind of peeking through from behind us), Shannon and Jilana. We all had weird Halloween headbands on. A non-fuzzy picture would have shown this better...
On the day of Emmalee's baptism, the morning was filled with football. Now, if you know me, I am not a big fan of sports. I find them boring to watch, with a few exceptions. Football ranks up there fairly high as one I could care less to watch ever. I think it might have to do with not understanding the game, but I figure at this point in my life I'm kind of a lost cause on that.
Well, my nephew Josh is on a team, so we went to watch him play. I'll admit I read the entire time, and only looked up to take this picture, but apparently his team had their first win. Yeah! Josh is number 12. I just looked for the really tall kid.
Then it was time for Emmalee's baptism! It was a nice day! My sister Danielle, her husband Shane and their kids came from Shelley for the event, as well as Jilana's husband Eric's parents and Jilana and Shannon's mom Pat and her husband Frank. It was a full house! Eric did a great job, and Emmalee looked very pretty with the hair curled, nails done, and new white dress.
The day before we left Boise we decided we wanted to do more than just sit on Jilana's couch, so we took a short trip up to a little town called Idaho City! Apparently at one point it was the biggest city in the whole state, but now it's more of an "Old West" type tourist town. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, it was Labor Day, and while most places at home would have stayed open for the holiday traffic, the people in Idaho City decided it was a holiday for them as well! There were a lot of things closed, but it was still neat. Here's a picture of the local theater. My next big job? Maybe!...
The day before we left Boise we decided we wanted to do more than just sit on Jilana's couch, so we took a short trip up to a little town called Idaho City! Apparently at one point it was the biggest city in the whole state, but now it's more of an "Old West" type tourist town. It was a lot of fun! Unfortunately, it was Labor Day, and while most places at home would have stayed open for the holiday traffic, the people in Idaho City decided it was a holiday for them as well! There were a lot of things closed, but it was still neat. Here's a picture of the local theater. My next big job? Maybe!...
We also went to the old Boise Train Station. I couldn't tell if it was a working station or not, but the tracks seemed to be maintained...
It's a very pretty place with a HUGE Koi pond out front, and lots of trees and flowers. My mom and dad found this little grove that they thought was pretty, so I took their picture!
Then I had mom take a picture of me with my triplet sisters. We look so alike, don't you think?? My mom took one on her camera also. That one turned out better, but I knew even though she said she would send it to me, that I would probably never see it again. *sigh* One of the set backs of digital pictures. Everyone thinks they can take forever! :P
Before we left I wanted to get one more good picture of my cute niece and nephew. They also have a cute little dog in their home named Rosco, so naturally, I had to have him in the picture as well, since we became very close...
When we got back home, it was almost time for Shannon's birthday! This year she decided to go to Disneyland to celebrate!
**Side note: The saddest thing on the face of the planet happened to me this summer. Because I have rolled all my finances (and more) into a chance to finish college, I am all but destitute. That being said, I had to let my Disneyland pass expire, and not renew. It was the most HORRIBLE thing that has happened to me in a long time! I have not been without a way to get into Disneyland at the drop of a hat in about 15 years. It's like torture!**
Shannon, out of the kindness of her heart, bought me a ticket into Disneyland! Happy Birthday to me! uh, I mean her! Here is a picture of Scott, Shannon and I at California Adventure. Later my brother's friend Reese met us there. We stayed over the night before, and ate lunch at the Blue Bayou. It was a nice day!
So really, that's my summer in a nutshell. You may have noticed the absence of my Ace Reporter. While he did attend many of my summer festivities, he decided this summer was his vacation too, and refused to be on camera. What a diva.
Lastly, here is one more picture of me, looking the part of the giant dork that I am. At Sea World, one of my jobs at Cirque was to push this giant inflatable ball down a ramp, then we would catch it, and at the end of the show we would pull it with a boat over to a floating trampoline where we would hoist it up and secure it for the next show. It's called a Zorb, and though they are cool, they also weight about 500 pounds and require the aid of a nasty, rusty "bone" to raise the Zorb to the top of a tower, when they are not on the trampoline.
Here is my final dorky picture for the year: Full water attire (life vest included) standing on the trampoline with the Zorb behind me... ha ha! Enjoy.
Hope you had a great summer!
