Camping

My family loves to go camping on the weekends in the summer, but we haven't gone quite as much so far this summer. This past weekend we went to La Porte City and camped with my grandparents. Friday night we all arrived, ate, and caught up with each other a bit. Isn't my family just beautiful?

The hat Carina made for my grandpa at camp

On Saturday some of my cousins came over and we hung out with them for the majority of the day. They are hilarious and we went to the park, watched a moive, took a "rest", went shopping, ate, and did other things. I mainly hung out with the 2 little girls Olivia and Jill, but Wesley and Gabe were also there.

Modeling my sunglasses

Showing off their new nametags

Sunday we took Carina back to camp and got an official tour from her. Then we packed up the camper and went home. My mom and Isaac had some fun backing the camper back into it's place in the yard.

Books I've Read

I've done quite a bit of reading so far this summer since I don't have a whole lot else to do. Most of the books that I've read I the suggestion from something I pinned called 10 books girls should read in their 20s and from Ashley Spivey's blog saynotocosmo:

How To Love An American Man by Kristine Gasbarre

This was a great book. It's the story about how Krsitine's grandma taught her all about finding love.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

This was also a good book. It's about a girl who keeps re-living the day she died and if she can change things.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

This book turned out to be really good. It's written kind of strangely, but the more I got into it the more I liked it. It's about a boys freshman year of school and is a movie coming out in Sept.

Confessions of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

I've seen the movie before and enjoy it, but I really liked the book. From what I remember from the movie the two are pretty similar, but I could be wrong. I think I may want to read more in the series.

Girls in White Dresses by Jennifer Close

This was also written kind of strangely in my opinion, but ended up being pretty good. It's about a few women who are in their 20s and what their lives are like as they watch a lot of their friends get married.

The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank

This book isn't about hunting or fishing it's about love. It's also rather strange, but had quite a bit of good parts as well.

What I Know Now: Letters to My Younger Self by Ellyn Spragins 

This is a collection of stories written by famous women about what they wish they would have known when they were younger. It was very interesting and a very quick read.

What Did I Do Wrong? By Liz Pryor

This was also interesting it's about stories of ending friendships. I don't feel like it totally related to me yet since I haven't really had any friendships end. Most of them would probably be because of moving, etc, but none ending surprisingly. It was still a good read.

And those are all the books I've read so far. Do you have any suggestions for me? I currently have a couple more checked out from the library that I'll be finishing and am waiting for a couple to come in, but am open to suggestions!

Summer So Far

I'll now catch you up on what I've been doing so far this summer:

• I've mainly been working at the pharmacy and public health. I work 3 days a week and the other 2 I usually hang out (which my mom doesn't enjoy)
• I've spent some time trying some recipes from pintrest. I made both smores cookies and strawberry nutella poptarts. Both tasted good and turned out very similarly to the recipe. I also crafted some graduation gifts for my roommates and mailed them off so hopefully the enjoyed them.

• Memorial day weekend I went to the DSM area with my family camping. 
• On Friday night I met up with Erin who was in town and we went to the mall and then ate at Chipotle. It was great to catch up with her and learn about her new job. Then I went to the Saylorville campground. 
• Saturday morning the girls went to the Farmer's market. I got a pupusa and dutch letters and looked around. Saw a few people that I knew and said hi.
• The boys then went to a farm to shoot some guns and so my mom, Carina, and I came along for a bit and watched then did a little shopping.
• We then had family pictures taken. It's been about 8 years since we've had any done so it was about time. We took them at Saylorville. I've just seen a little preview on facebook and they look pretty good.
• Sunday I went boating, then shopping, and then Courtney came over and we went on a night bike ride on a nearby bike trail and road to the High Tresle Bridge near Madrid, IA.

Credit: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151169990297564.544377.111915757563&type=3; http://www.photographybybecca.com/

Some of the walkers

Courtney and I

The bridge

Courtney and I again

• The following weekend my dad's parents had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary so we had a little party for them and also took family pictures on that side. We haven't had pictures taken on that side for probably 10 years. The party was fun I served coffee and helped with the cake a bit. I stole some pictures for the family pictures that my uncle had on his facebook page. We haven't seen any of the proofs yet.

Grandkids

Whole family

My Family

• After family pictures I headed to Des Moines for Deb's bachelorette party. We went to the Funny Bone, and then some bars in West Glen and downtown. It was fun and there were some crazy people that we saw out.

Deb and I

• The rest of my summer has been spent reading (I'll write a post tomorrow about what books I've read), watching movies, running with my mom and brother (we're doing the couch to 5k running plan), biking, and rollerblading
• It's been a nice relaxing summer so far and it's always nice to not have classes to go to!

Catch-Up of End Of School Year

As you can tell I have been neglecting my blogging so I apologize for that. I don't think I ton of people read this though so it's probably fine. I'll catch you all up on the things that I did at the end of the school year that I can remember:

• Drake Relays: helped Allie deliver Pizza to workers at the mall, watched the pole vaulting at the mall, went to some races, watched Traci throw both the shot and discus, ate with Marc's family and Erin, played the game of things, went to the pancake breakfast, etc.

Friends at Peggys

Traci throwing

• Senior wine and cheese: at Drake seniors and P2s are invited to President Maxwell's house for a wine and cheese party. It's a time to mingle and talk to people in our grade. Maddy and President Maxwell each said a little something too. It was fun, but a little strange since most of the people there are actually graduating.

Friends since freshman year

Roomies

P2 girls

• Last Intervarsity: it's tradition for the last intervarsity of the school year to be dedicated to the seniors/P2. They play a little video thing and then the seniors all get up to speak. It was strange looking at the other seniors and realizing that Courtney and I will the only ones that are even around next year. 

IV seniors and Amy

• Last weeks living in DG: the last couple of weeks living in DG will filled with lots of senior activities, wills, scrapbooks, installation as alumnae, class brunch at Jethros, etc. We also tried to hang out with each other and my roommates and I had a little paul revere's party. I've loved living in the house the past 2 years and will really miss living with 34 other women and always having someone else around to talk with, watch tv with, or just do random things with.

• Erin's bday dinner: for Erin's 23rd birthday we went to Zombie burger. I believe we each got a different burger and most of us each got a shake. Their burgers and shakes are both really good and I would highly recommend going if you are in the Des Moines area. I'm so glad that I've gotten the chance to live with Erin and get to know her better. She's an amazing person and friend!

Nikki, Ashley, and Nikki

Courtney, Emily, and Erin

• Finals: during all of these excitement I also went to school and classes and took all my finals I ended up passing all of my classes so that's a plus
• Graduation: I went and watched a lot of my friends graduate. It was very strange to see them graduate and know that they won't be there in the fall with me. I also went with Erin's family to her graduation dinner at Django. It was really good and great to meet her uncles.

Roomies

Adrea and I (P2s that lived in the house)

Roomies plus Courtney

Worship Wednesday-"Before the Throne of God"

Veishea

Last Saturday was Veishea and so I went to Ames to watch the parade and hang out with my family and family friends. I haven't been able to go the past couple of years because of the Relay's Parade, but since I'm not on the committee this year (and the fact that it was cancelled) I was able to go to Veishea. It was a very rainy morning so the parade wasn't the best thing to watch, but it was still nice to chat with Carina and Isaac. After the parade we went and got cherry pies, some fudge, and cheese curds. We also walked around a couple buildings for a bit then headed to the bookstore. I found a lot of nice clothes that I wanted, but my parents didn't really want to buy me them. I'm not sure why? I mean who doesn't need a $35 pair or shorts or $50 sweatshirt, right? Then we headed off to Hickory Park. We had the traditional kids table and adult table. It was somewhat enjoyable as the 2 youngest children spilled so much food all over the place and were rather crazy. Then we parted ways and I got a new camera (mine broke halfway through formal) so now I can start taking pics of events again :)

Streetpainting/Greek Intevarsity

Last Friday was streetpainting at Drake. This was my 3rd year going (I didn't go freshman year). The past 2 years I've mainly helped paint the intervarsity square and haven't done much of walking around or throwing/putting paint on others. This year I decided that I was just going to show up and not necessarily help with any square painting, but instead paint other people. I went with Nikki M and we met Nikki L there. It was nice to just walk around and watch people fight with paint. It was also nice to be able to talk to people and steal paint to put on other people. I only stayed for about an hour because I was meeting people for dinner (I'll write about that later in the post), but it was still a lot of fun. I was surprised by how many people were already covered in paint. I think this is a great tradition at Drake and am glad that I've been a part of it. The street looks awesome and ready for relays!

After I showered and got the majority of the paint off of my body I met some people at Drake Diner to discuss Greek Intervarsity. There were a couple of Greek IV staff from San Diego State (I think that's where there were from anyway) were in Des Moines because they had been at the University of Iowa starting some Greek IV stuff and so Amy thought it would be great to sit down with them. It was Anna, Sarah, Tess, Aaron, Amy, and myself for dinner. It was super interesting to hear about Greek IV chapters across the country and what they were doing. We also just talked about our own experiences with IV and being involved in a Greek organization. I think we're going to start meeting and seeing where God leads us within the Greek community. I'm really excited about this and will probably continue to work with this into next year and just be that creepy alum ;)