Its My Birthday...

I have to admit I had a great Birthday. I can't really believe I am 27 years old. Matt commented today that he had 2 kids when he was 27. I can't even imagine having one kid right now.
This morning Mom made my favorite breakfast of The Good Kind of French Toast. My cute four nieces and nephews sang Happy Birthday very well. Then we headed off to Alyaksa for a day of skiing. When we got there it was -8 degrees outside. Yes, it was cold but the sun was peaking over the mountain at 12pm and I couldn't pass up the opportunity. Matt and I had a great day of skiing. The view from the top was amazing. I couldn't get over how beautiful the view was. The runs were fun with even a fresh layer of snow. When we were done for the day it was -12 degrees outside. Yes it was cold but worth it.
That night I had a great Halibut dinner and the famous birthday cake. It was a great birthday. I did what I love the most, skiing in one of my favorite states. Cat commented the only thing that would of made it better was being abot to ski with a cute boy that wasn't my brother.
I had to agree.

Super Fast UT Trip.

When I moved back to Washington I didn't have room for my skis. So they have been hanging out at Grandmas house. Well the snow was starting to come and I couldn't leave them there any longer. I decided to take a super fast trip to go pick them up.
Mom and Dad decided to join in, which I was grateful for. We left Friday. It was great to see and spend time with Grandma. Saturday morning I met Ashleigh, Mel, Steph and Tammie Jo for breakfast. It was so great to see all of them. That afternoon Uncle Bob and Aunt Ginny met us at Grandmas for lunch. Then that night I went out with my friends. It was so much fun to hangout with them once again. We went to Crown burger and then headed to Temple Square for the Christmas lights. I just love all my EG and Melrose friends so much.
Sunday we went to one hour of church them headed back to Washington. We made it until La Grand. It had started to snow and Dad asked the truck divers how it looked ahead. They all told us to stay the night so we got a hotel and then left in the morning. We picked up some chains put them on and used them for 30min and then the roads became nice and clear. It was crazy we only had to use them for so little but it was fun to see all the snow while it lasted.
I love an excitng roadtrip.

NKOTB

The weekend came for the New Kids on the Block concert. I drove up to Laura's on Friday and was able to hang out with the family Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday night was the big show. It was at the Tacoma Dome. When we got there they gave us closer tickets. I guess they didn't sell enough so they closed the top sections. Which is funny but heck we didn't care we got better seats.
As we walked in I had never see so many girls in one spot in my life. They were everywhere. With a few guys here and there. Probably because their wife's made them come. Natasha Bettingfield opened the show. I was really excited about that, she did a good job. Afterward we decided to use the restroom before the show started. Well the line was a mile long and when we passed the mens restroom no one was there. I said heck lets just go in there. Laura sent me in to check it out. There was one guy so I got Laura. It was a very smart move.
I have to admit the show its self was a lot of fun. They actually sounded really good. The classic songs were all sung along with a few new ones. But man these boys can still hit the high note and dance it up on that stage.
I had a great time with Laura and am glad we made with great memory together. I wouldn't of done it with anyone else.
Thanks Laura I love ya.

Rock n Roll

With an opening song of My Name is Jonas, the Weezer concert was amazing. I was very impressed with their performance. They had a good mix from all their CD's which was nice. It was the first concert in a very long time that Kami and I stayed in our assigned seats the whole time. They weren't bad seats and we thought of trying to get to the floor but when we started to see poofs of smoke we decided it would probably be better to stay where we were.

On day Matt you and I will go to a concert again. Or maybe my goal should be to get Nick to a concert :-)

The Boys are in Town

The best weekend since I have been in Washington happened this week when Tyson, Bob and Ben came to visit. They drove through the night and showed up at my door step at 6am. We all went back to bed for a few hours then the adventure happened. The weekend of highlights included.

* Portland Saturdays Market, and a yummy lunch at Annie's little Japanese spot.

* Mt St Helen's and when Annie went the wrong way. The view was still amazing but not what was planned.

*Astoria, OR. Getting super close to the Sea Lions, Finally deciding where to eat-and the Mexican who kept hitting on Annie.
*Falling asleep to The Goonies
*Church at the Longview branch and the members thinking we were brother and sisters.

*Hiking to the Light House and Exploring the beach.
* The Cranberry Festival.
*Our hunt for big foot.
*Playing in the Army Forts.
*The Goonie Sites
*Ben Changing into his swimming suit and jumping in the ocean.
*Haystack Rock and how we all got covered in mud but somehow Tyson stayed perfectly clean.
*Bob walking into the Salvation Army with no shoes and coming out with a new pair.
*Powell's Books
* Pikes Place Market
* The really good French Pasty Shop.
*The Music Project and the Poor Some Sugar On Me performance.
*Sneaking on the fair rides when the park was closed.
*Every restaurant being too small to seat 5 people and them never getting Annie's order right.
* The sunset at the water tower.
* And Most of all Great Times and Memories with my favorite Guys.

Three for the Price of One

So my entertainment world is really on a roll right now. Which is good because I have been feeling like it has been slacking. But as they say when it rains it pours.

Last night Kami and I went to the Blazer game. We bought the $13.00 cheap tickets. We had heard that if you bring 2 cans of food you would get a free ticket to High School Musical on Ice, that normally cost $45.00 So we did that for our good friend Kari Paugh. Its a surprise for her that she will LOVE.

The game was a blast. Of course we didn't even go to our nose bleed seats. We just walked in to the lower bowl found some great seats and sat there the whole time. The Blazers lost to Golden State but it was a close game up to the last 4 min.

Tonight Kami, Niel and a friend Clint and I are headed to the Weezer concert. Kami found a promo code on-line so the $45 tickets only cost us $17 and they're pretty good seats too. I'm really excited for that. But I mean how can you not be excited for a concert.

So this is what this all boils down too. Blazer game, High School Musical, and Weezer all for $30.

PS The same weekend of High School Musical is also Warren Miller. We have to try and win those so we don't have to pay.

Oh and I almost forgot. Come November is when I'm headed to Seattle for New Kids on the Block with Laura.

Its times like this that make life great.

No Photos

I just don't know how I feel about blogging when I don't have a camera. Can I still blog? I know I can but whats the fun about just reading words. I feel its so much more interesting when I have pictures to go a long.

I am hoping that within a few months I will have a camera once again. I am going to grow up and start working 5 days a week. I hope I will survive and it will be a sacrifice but I really need a new camera.

I am going to sign up for Dental Staffing. Its a temp place. So hopefully I will find jobs on Fridays to work. All the money I get from that will go towards a new camera.

I just feel like my life isn't complete without a camera. I think of places I want to go do and think to myself, "Why should I, I don't have a camera to take pictures" I was so excited to take fall pictures. But I guess another time. I was thinking the other day about moving to AK and I thought I really can't move there until I have a camera. I don't think I could handle missing so many amazing shots. Even though I already have hundreds of pictures of AK.

I never thought I would feel this way about taking pictures but I really do have a love for it. Before it was stolen I knew I loved to take photos but now that its gone I have really come to realize the love I have for beauty and capturing it on paper. If there is anything good to come out of this I guess its me realizing the love I have for photography and that I really to want to pursue it more.

Photos to come really soon :-)

Hawai'i

I don't think my trip could of been any better...well I guess it could of been better if it was longer.

Seeing Bucky again was great as always. We are sad that we don't live closer together. We really were each others most fun companions while on the mission.

So what did I do in HI. Pretty much just went to the beach. One day we went to Sharks Cove and did some snorkeling. That was amazing...we say and huge eel. Bucky said she had never even seen one that big. Then we ran into two sea turtles a mommy and baby. Which were just so cute. And just tons of really cool fish.

We spent a day at Wiamea Bay where i jumped the rock once again and really couldn't believe I did that when I was 8, thats Sophie's age. When Bucky jumped she hit the water wrong and fractured her baby toe. So the rest of the trip she was a gimp. Then I hurt my nose so bad once again. The pressure just hurt so bad when I went in. I have to get those pics from Tembre.

Thanks to Mom and Dad we found a great beach for Boogie Bording. It was so pretty and the waves couldn't of been anymore perfect. I had to stop my Sandy's of course and got in half way. Its amazing how strong those waves are. This local lady came up to us, Have you been here before?, Yes I said. Ok well these waves are really strong.

We headed into town one day and went to the swap meet then over to Pearl Harbor. I really enjoyed that again. War history is so interesting to me. Dad called and asked if I would buy him a new flag. Well the prices have gone up for sure. For one like ours it cost $70, I called him back and he said ours was still good. :-) I agreed. We dropped of Tembre with her friend she stayed the night with. The we headed back to Laie.

Sunday morning Tembre called and told me she was going home, yeah I couldn't believe it. I still really don't know why. She said she wasn't feeling good. She did get burnt good but it was nothing compared to what I have had in the passed. So she left and I stayed. I felt bad but she had it all arranged when she called.

Church was fun, I always like going to church in Hawaii. Although it did start at 2pm which made it late by the time we got out. The sun goes down so early there. Its dark by 7pm.

Monday the beaches where crazy due to Labor day. But we still went, when I say we I mean, Bucky and Bambi Buckys best friend there. We headed to Three Tables for some snorkeling but it wasn't very good so we went back to Sharks Cove. Once again we saw some amazing fish. We were out there for an hour.

Tuesday was wonderful. I spent the day at the beach for 6 hours. I was by myself since Bucky and Bambi had school but I didn't mind. It was wonderful. I loved every second.

So on Wednesday I was leaving. But not till 1:30pm, So we decided to go Kayaking in the morning. I was amazing. We went through a river and the forest surrounded us so much at times we had to lay down to get around. When we got back to the car we looked at the clock and it was 11:30..oops Thats when we were suppose to be leaving. So we hurried home, grab my stuff as I got lectured from her mom how I'm going to make my flight. We hurried to the airport, as fast as you can when the top speed limit it 50 mph. I made it with 30min to spear. However when I got the counter no one was there. A man came up to me to inform me that the flight was closed. I couldn't get on. A part of me wasn't sad at all. Bucky was still there so we got me a new flight for the next day then headed straight to Bambi's house to pick her up and we headed to the beach. It was so much fun. The waves were great and there was no one on the beach.

The next morning we woke up early, took Bucky to school then Bambi and I took a detour into town and got to the airport 2 hours before my flight. It was sad to leave, Bucky said she was crossing her fingers that I would and wouldn't make me flight.

I am considering of applying for school now....or maybe I should just look for an assisting job in over there.

Haystack Rock

On Monday is Niels Birthday so I took him to Cannon Beach on Saturday. He has never been there and always talked about how he wanted to go take pictures there.

I can't believe how many people where on the beach. Yes it was 104 degrees in Vancouver so I'm sure everyone thought, Lets go to the Beach, We first went down right near Haystack rock. I was getting worried cause it was a little foggy. The picture taking wasn't very good at this spot.

But then we decided to go to Ecola State Park. Which was a wonderful idea. The view was incredible and the flog was behind the rock so you could see it perfectly. We hiked on this cool trail down to the beach then took hundreds of pictures, and thats no joke. The sad part was there wasn't a sunset because of the marine layer of clouds.
After picture taking time we went and had a picnic and then we watch Goonies, a very appropriate movie for the setting .

That ended a really great day.

AMAZING!

Just in case y'all didn't know I have the most amazing best friend. This past week Kami was listening to the radio and heard..."Call now to win back stage passes to Gavin Rossdale.", Now y'all need to know. First Gavin is the lead singer of Bush, which was Kami's first concert and first celebrity's crush that has never gone away. So Kami called and it started to ring, then the girl answered and said. If you were to interview Gavin what question would you ask. Kamis response was, " Being married to another rock start, Gwen Stefani, do the two of you ever talk about your work when composing music or do you keep to yourself? Now that question just won her two tickets.

I was at work and just happened to go check my phone to see I had a message, Kami was so excited it was at if she was 12 and just won Hannah Montana tickets. I could hardly understand what she was saying.

When I got home she told me the whole story and I found out the concert was in Seattle on Thrus. It was meant to be cause randomly I didn't have to work that day.

So we left around 4 got there at 8 due to traffic. We met up with our contact, Steve who was with his album. Then the time came when we got to meet him. As we were walking up and first saw him all we were thinking of is how dang cute he is.

So we got to wait in line to go up and meet him and take pics. Kami got out her camera and turned it on only to discover the batteries were out. We almost died! What were we to do? We could not believe this happened. So we then asked the ladies next to us if their camera took AA and they were kind enough to let us use some.

It was then our turn and we didn't even know what to say. He's famous and beautiful what are we suppose to say. But we introduced ourselves and then Kami asked her question. In response Gavin said, that they usually just work alone but sometimes over breakfast will talk about it. He is very nice which made us happy. Specially for Kami to know she crush isn't a jerk.

And that was that. We then went down to the concert. The whole thing was sponsored my Samsung so it was small only about 1,000 people. The venue was standing only, we were only about 10 people from the stage.

The concert its self was amazing. Ya know just give me live music and I'll have fun. He sang about 5 Bush songs which was fun. After the concert we got back in the car and drove back to Vancouver.

This was perfect practice for the day Kami and I will meet U2, we know what to expect and will prepare to talk more. Now I know most of you are thinking whatever Annie, you are never going to meet Bono. But you have to realize Kami and I have now both met our #2, her with Gavin and me when I met Harry Connick. So now we get to move up to #1. Yes, this might mean we have to go to Africa to do so. But we're willing to travel.

Thanks Kami we're the Best!

Campin with some Packs

This weekend I went on the laziest backpacking trip of my life but it was great. Kami, Lori, Niel and I went on this adventure. We hiked the Souixson Falls trail. And it was amazing. It is just north of Amboy.

The trail was difficult at all, which I didn't complain about. It followed this river that was so clear at times it felt like you weren't even looking through water. We hiked in maybe 3 miles and found a great campsite. So you pitched our tents then continued on without our packs. We followed the trail and went on side trips down near the river. It was just fun.

We got back to the camp site and made our REI camping meals which were good. Then we cooked some apple crisp in our camping stoves. That was really good although it might have to do with the fact that we were camping.

After dinner we played some Frisbee in the woods. Now that was fun yet challenging all at the same time. When it started to get dark we sat by the fire for a bit then headed to bed at 10pm we were all so excited to just sleep in our tents.

And I guess we slept too good. Cause we didn't wake up til 11am. And this is no joke. I about died. We had planed to go on a hike in the morning but yeah that didn't happen. Instead we cook some breakfast then cleaned out camp and headed out.

Lazy but a blast all at the same time!

David Cook is Definatly #1

Last night my work took everyone to the American Idol Concert. I was able to get an extra ticket so Kami was able to come along too. Our office met for dinner at the Hazel Dell Brew Pub. Which is really good. I can't believe I had never been there.

After a very good halibut sandwich, but not quite as good as Humpy's in AK, We headed to the Rose Garden. We had really good seats. They weren't floor but very close.

The interesting thing about this is the Top 10 preform. So you can for sure see why they got kicked off first. David Cook was defiantly the best one. David Archileta did very well also. Although its like I said from the beginning he just doesn't have stage performance. I have to say the 3rd best was Brook, the Mormon girl.

But you know me just give me some live music and I'll have a blast.

What else but Rain on the 4th

So I will never understand it. For the past two weeks the weather has been amazing. No rain, no clouds, just pure Sun. Until the 4th of July. I don't think it will ever been sunny in Washington on the 4th, and that is a question I will ask God.

I woke up to cloudy skies. At least it was warm about 70 degrees so that was nice. I slept, cuase I was tried from doing lots of yard work the day before.

In the afternoon our friend Lori came over and her Kami and I had a small BBQ. It was really good though. I made my first potato salad. luckily when I was over at Nick and Kim I help Kim with hers so I new a little about what I was doing. It turned out really good. Then we had hamburgars, corn, grilled veggies and cherries. Yum, Yum.

Our friends Lance and Mark came over around 6:30pm and we headed down to the Fort. We met up with some others from the ward. It was lots of fun. We played cards, some really intense Frisbee and just hung out til the big show.

The Fireworks were great as always but a little short it was only about 30min and I have to say I have seen better finally in the past. But it was still just tons of fun.

After words lots of people headed over to our house. We made Pazookies. Which Mom and Dad know about. I had then at this restaurant in UT called the Firehouse. And is a cookie baked in a cast rion skillet but not all the way though. Anyhow thanks so Mom for leaving the skillet we had an amazing treat. It turned out so good. Everyone loved it. After our treat we stayed up forever playing games and just having a good time.

I'll have to say it was a great 4th of July.