beach life...

We are down in sunny CA at the beach and having a wonderful time. My parents and my brother Scott and his wife Jenn came with us. We've been beach bumming it all weekend. Tanner asked if we could stay longer and skip school all week!

Here are a few pictures so far...

Grandpa always with a golf club!

Look at Tanner!

Tanner catching some waves!

John can't sit still at the beach! Has to make the biggest sand castle around!

Ashley and Jenn playing some games.

Grandpa and I caught the same wave!

BBQ dinner watching the sunset!

Beautiful sunset!!!!

ashley's corner II

as a result of the praises and compliments i've been bombarded with these past few weeks concerning "ashley's corner", i've decided to keep it coming. for the good of the people. haha just kidding. but seriously! 

so school started yesterday, and in the past 24 hours i've decided that being a senior is the greatest thing ever. we have block schedule at bonanza this year, and a senior can take a minimum of 4 classes, so for me that means 2 classes a day!! its beautiful. this year is going to be the best. 2 of my classes are way easy and 2 are AP, so its pretty well spread out. my favorite part is i get out at 9:55. hallelujah! my mom thinks its nuts haha but i rather enjoy it. i got a new job at a dry cleaners (dont worry everyone, i still work at farm basket) that starts at 1, so i get home eat some lunch, take a nap, do whatever i want and then go to work. the only thing i CANT do is text. i got it taken away. sad, i know. but believe it or not, im still living. the trick is i try to ignore the withdrawls and the pain in my heart that i am going through. 

other than work and starting school, not much has been going on at all. i got called to be on the seminary council, so i think that will be a lot of fun, i love everyone on it. kami has been gone for a week.. and it sure is weird not seeing her everyday :( alex leaves this thursday (in two days!! yikes!) and kristine leaves sometime next week. we've all shed tears and yes, it is going to be hard but i finally think everything will be fine. the more i talk to people about it, the more i realize that the situation isn't just my four best friends leaving me here all alone while they go to party at college. it will be hard for them too! they dont know anyone up there. look at kristine, shes going all the way up to idaho for who knows how long without a single person she knows. i suppose i was being a little selfish and bitter about being "alone" for my last year of highschool :) but they will be going through the same things too. we'll all be meeting new people and joining new groups this year. and the great thing is, as we're gaining all these new friends we will still have each other. i know we will probably never be as close as we have been these past 4 years.. but im just so grateful that they even came into my life. they have all helped me grow in so many countless ways and we've made each other who we are today. its hard for me to grasp the fact that we wont be seeing too much of each other anymore, but thank heavens for cell phones, right? fab 5 forever :) 

well thats pretty much all thats on my mind right now.. i've got some tivo-ed oprahs to watch so i will catch up with ya later. 

i'm out 

-ash

(that was for you cathi haha- IM OUT!)

It's your birthday, shout hooray!

Happy Birthday John!

My honey is 44 today! I have been lucky enough to spend 20 of those 44 years with him! He is the best thing in my life!

In celebration of his life... here are a few pictures of John growing up.Cute little guy!


Looks a lot like Mitchell hugh!

Handsome missionary....

This is the John I fell in love with at college!

John and I celebrated his Birthday Saturday night by going up to Tuacahn to see Les Miserables and we spent the night in St. George. The play was amazing. If you have a chance to go see it there, do! We've seen it before on a regular stage and it was wonderful, but there was something amazing about being outside. They shot cannons off during the war scene and shot fireworks into the sky.... and had horses onstage... so many things that you can't do in an inside theatre. It was a great weekend! Happy Birthday John!!! I love you!




 

Good Job Mitchell!!

Mitchell made the JV Soccer team at Bonanza!!!! YAH! He is very excited. He worked real hard all summer going to the intramural practices. It was hard to go in the Vegas heat... but it paid off. We'll keep you all updated on scores as the season gets going! Good job Mitch!

Weekend review...

We had a great trip last week. Had fun visiting family in Utah and Idaho. Wednesday night we headed up to Idaho Falls for our niece Samantha's wedding. The wedding was Thursday morning and it was beautiful. She looked beautiful and she married a great guy. It was so fun to see Grandma Barnes and 4 of John's 5 sisters.   

We just wish we could have spent more time with them! John had to work... how inconvenient!  Ashley & Tanner had a great time getting to know her "Idaho" cousins. We wish more cousins were able to be there... John's family is very spread out, so it's hard to get us all together. 

 

The reception was very nice. Unfortunately the winds picked up and we had to move everything inside at the last minute! Sam had planned on an outside reception and it was a real hard decision for her to move it in, but it was a good one. It was windy all night! Outside the church building in Hamer Idaho there is a huge lawn and it looked so pretty out there... luckily the church was right across the parking lot. The guys sure got a work out moving all the tables and chairs back and forth! Needless to say we were all very tired when it was over. But it was worth it! (Mitchell was at EFY. It was so strange to not have him there.)

We got back to Lehi Friday night after stopping to see my brothers new place in Pocatallo ID. Unfortunately he was having some nose surgery that day so we didn't get to see him. (no, he didn't get plastic surgery... although he has the longest nose in the family... we measured once)  Luckily a few of the kids were home and we got to see their new house. I wanted to see where they were living now... I like to have a visual picture of where people are.  We definitely want to go back soon and go to the hot springs with them. It looks like a great area and we are excited for their new adventure.

On our way out of town we stopped by our good friends house who just move up to Alpine Utah. Mitchell lived at the Zebe's on the weekends hanging out with Jake and Barbara was my YW secretary... we are going to miss them so much!! We wanted to see where they going to be. Their house is beautiful and they seem to be getting settled.

Saturday night we hurried home and John and I got tickets from his channel 8 rep to see Kenny G. He was amazing. It was out at Lake Las Vegas on the lawn and there was a full moon to the right of the stage and to the left was a huge lightening storm. It was so cool. And the music was awesome. He was a great performer! I would highly recommend seeing him if you can.

What do you do in Utah?

1. IKEA
2. Family
Just kidding... we see family first and then IKEA...

The kids and I drove up to Utah on Saturday...We hung out at my brother Todd's house on Sunday evening. We were suppose to have a picnic but is was raining. We had fun watching the Olympics on his big projector screen and we caught up with cousins that came to visit.

Monday we dropped Mitchell and his friend Dylan off at EFY. They were pretty excited to go. Ashley was extremely upset that she didn't sign up again... oh well. We made her happy by picking up her good friend Leah and going to the mall and a movie. We saw Mama Mia. It was great.

This morning we started the day with a trip to IKEA! We even had breakfast there! I tried not to spend too much money! Then we went swimming with my sister in law at her parents pool. The kids had so much fun swimming together. They are all so cute! The girls LOVE Ashley!

Such cute little girls!

The boys exploring the pool...

Dallin & Brendon!

Fighting for time...

Ashley and I are fighting over this book! I guess we should have bought 2 copies. Ashley and her girlfriends went our Friday night to a few of the book parties at Barnes & Noble and Borders Books. The parties were a "prom night" theme, so they got all dressed in their formals. They had a great time. I will try to get a picture from her camera and post it tomorrow. Luckily she sleeps in till 11:00 so morning will be my reading time!