Gone July Gone

So the month of July was absolute craziness. July was full of work, school, and play. Lemme fill you in...

It started with a wonderful weekend at home to celebrate Independence Day. I headed home on Thursday the 3rd and spent a couple of days with the fam.

We each took a turn playing on the toys.

Mom even played a little Hop Scotch

Elliott played with the sprinkler and enjoyed every minute of it.

I played a few games of Badminton in the yard with Mom, Clark, and Julie. We headed to the river to watch the fireworks. Luckily, I have a brother-in-law who happens to love fried food as much as I do. We wandered around and shared a funnel cake. It was delicious. I took Elliott for a walk, showed him all of the air conditioners, and then returned to our spot for the fireworks. I put Quinn to sleep so he didn't really get to experience his first Freedom Celebration in Idaho Falls. I love the Fourth of July. I love the time I get to spend with my family. It's always a good time.

I started two classes on Monday the 7th. The first class was scheduled from 8:00 until 12:00 (he let us out around 11:00 most days, which was so nice of him). The second class was scheduled from 1:00-5:00 (she let us out early too). After the first week, I should have stayed home and worked on homework and projects and portfolios (I didn't think about how much homework I would have within those two weeks, and lemme tell ya it was crazy!) but I didn't, I went to Island Park with a couple of girls that I work with. It was a fun trip:

We floated the Buffalo River

(Lacee, myself, Jessie)

Lacee worked hard to blow up the rafts. I offered to carry one of the rafts but Jessie and Lacee insisted on doing it themselves.

The water was VERY cold

Jessie making sure she survived the rapids (which didn't really exist)

After the float we enjoyed a picnic on the back of my car and Jessie shared her talent

I am enjoying my food and Lacee is trying in vain to mirror Jessie's skills

We cleaned up and headed to Big Springs to look at the fish. We walked the trail to the old rail road bridge and took a few pictures.

We headed into West Yellowstone and attended the Playmill where we saw "Hello Dolly!" It was a fun show, but not my favorite musical of all time. We concluded the night with some pool...

...and a ping-pong tournament of which I was the champion. Woot woot!

After a weekend of intermission, I completed my classes. I was doing homework up to the bitter end. There was definitely procrastination along the way. I went to the midnight premiere of "The Dark Knight" on my last day of class. Probably not a smooth move, but one I don't regret. I floated the Oneida Narrows with my ward, and watched a movie with some friends, and turned in my assignment at 6:15 Monday morning right before I left for work. My assignment was due by 8:00 that morning. I definitely cut it close but it was all worth it. I got As in both of my classes and after this summer I am now twelve credits closer to graduation!

July ended with a birthday celebration for yours truly...

I woke up at 6:00 to birthday banners, a birthday present, a card, and a delicious chocolate cake to be eaten for breakfast!

I went to work and the mow crew offered to take me to lunch. We met my roommate at Pita Pit (one of my favorites!) for lunch. At least three people offered to pay for my lunch but Becky won because she offered first. After work, Natasha took me to ice cream at Cold Stone.

Cassie drove up from Salt Lake and walked through the door holding this:

She knew that my dad's chocolate cake recipe was my all time favorite so she got online, searched for my parents names in the yellow pages, called my house and got the recipe. Talk about effort! It was a delicious cake, I am impressed with Cassie's skills! She also made the letters herself, laminated and everything!!

Then I opened my presents. Cassie supplied me with chocolate and "Sixteen Candles". Colette gave me ingredients for Jenny's Stuff (my favorite treat). They were exciting, thoughtful gifts.

CoCo, Cass, and I then went to Callaway's for an Italian dinner.

The night continued with a couple rounds of Cosmic Bowling. The music sucked and our scores weren't very good, but we had a wonderful time. I won the first game with a 99 (I wasn't lying about the scores) and I won the second game with a 112. I am in the first picture, Colette is in the middle, and Cassie is the one on the ground. She was on the downhill of nursing a broken ankle. The ankle was still a little tender so she was trying a variety of bowling techniques.

After bowling, we headed to Wal-Mart where I purchased a John Cusack triple pack: "Runaway Jury", "Say Anything", and "The Sure Thing". It was my birthday present to me. We sat around with Seth,

enjoyed the birthday cake Cassie made for me,

and we burned the candles (following Hatch tradition). We used a paper plate. DUMB

We played "I have never..." while the candles burned. We had some good laughs. This is me with my victory finger. Yes, I won. It was a good day for winning.

The paper plate started burning and out of fear of burning the table, Cassie grabbed the plate and headed toward the kitchen. She paused for a few seconds and allowed hot wax to drip on the tile floor. Once we put out the candles and took care of the plate, we tended to the floor.

It turned out to be a fabulous birthday that actually continued into the next day when my family came to take me out to dinner. We went to Cafe Sabor and headed back to my house where I opened my presents. My parents gave me..

A sleeping bag

An air mattress and a head lamp

And some new piano music

It has been a fabulous month filled with all sorts of adventures and things. I can't believe it is over and the we are into the month of August. I move from one house to the next house one week from Friday and school starts two weeks from Monday. I...need time...to...breathe...Oh wait, I went on vacation last week with the fam. That was a good time, I'll have to share that one in the next post...