farewell summer...

this summer might top the charts as the BEST SUMMER EVER. i think i say that every year, but seriously, this summer's been phenomenal. i have enjoyed every second of no school & found it kinda hard to go back this week. here are some of my favorite summer memories...ones i will never forget:

 

-i started off my summer with the BEST road trip of all time to colorado to see tom petty play. 

-went to record store day and took luke's dad's car for a spin.

-shaved my cat to look like a lion.

 

-was introduced to the DELICIOUSNESS that is lucky slice pizza in ogden. nomz.

-went to logan for my brother's graduation, & my nephew's baby blessing.
-celebrated cinco de mayo with ogden friends.
-lots of hikes & walks to the park.
 

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-went to lagoon to celebrate our niece kaylee's fifth birthday.

-saw SEVERAL bands we've been wanting to see live for ages: the civil wars, holy water buffalo, iron & wine, horse feathers, & mumford & sons.

-hosted a benefit concert for the tears foundation.

-QUIT MY JOB AT STARBUCKS and got a big girl job.

-got a summer job at criddle's cafe & spent the summer eating copious amounts of breakfast.
 
 

-made friends with the odd entertainment at the arts festival.
-also went to the pride festival as well as worldwide on 25th festival. (we really like festivals, in case you didn't know.)

-lots of mornings on the patio with luke, drinking coffee & talking about nothing.

 

-homemade pizza & wine night with ally...out on the patio, again.

-my dear friend emily moved to ogden & i showed her the ropes. 

-went to our good friend chase's wedding..in june...in the rain. freezing.

-birthday parties: mikki's, kristin's & ben's!

 

-went to PRIDE 2012 & celebrated the future of freedom & equality with my starbucks coworkers.

 

 

 

-flew to seattle to watch chelsea fc kick the sounders' butts. see more awesome photos here, here and here.

-took my dad & sister on the ogden valley garden tour  for their birthdays.
-celebrated the fourth with parades, lots of food, family, swimming, & sleeping through fireworks (dang early shifts!)
-did the family triathlon, even with a good attitude!
-went to the zoo...saw lots of bears yay!

-watched lots of TV & did a whole lot of laying around.

 i bid adieu to summer 2012, one of the best...but i am not THAT sad about it. i'm very ready for hot coffee, jacket weather, fall leaves crunching under my feet, & beanie weather.

 

my little sister's wedding.

 

hard to believe my LITTLE sister got married last week, but it's true. i am so happy for her & chris & their adventures they will have together!

the wedding/reception was one of the better ones i've ever been to. here are some highlights:

 

i think casie & chris surprised EVERYONE at the party with their jump into my parent's pool. we had walked them out to the car to leave, & they drove around to the front of the house, came back into the backyard & SPLASH! i couldn't believe it...i stood there stunned for a minute before my brother alex threw kylie in & jumped in after her...so i figured what the heck? soon a bunch of us were having a "swim in your clothes" pool party. the best memory ever!

 

hangin' outside the temple with my favorite kiddies. grace was doing "baby talk" to preston & matthew was making a wish at the fountain. (he wished to know every dinosaur ever.) 

  

the whole familia. there are a lot more on our side than chris' side, as you can see.

 

bridesmaids!

 

preston & luke.

 

 

we shamelessly decorated casie's car PG-13 style. the condoms we blew up & put all over were a nice touch...especially when casie ripped one off & my niece grace started dribbling it like a soccer ball. oh the innocence of children..

 

how cute are they in their pink ties!?!? ah.

 

casie, slightly embarrassed, trying to get into her car.

congrats you guys! it was a beautiful day & a great way to end the couple weeks my brother's family was in town. i missed them immensely & already wish i could see them! fingers crossed for a trip out to texas in december.. 

CAUTION: niece/nephews picture overload.

it was so awesome having my brother & sister-in-law in town from texas this month...we've had so much fun going to the zoo, going to breakfast to eat delicious scones (twice), & i got the lovely opportunity to babysit the stinkers on more than one occasion... one of the benefits of being the only nonmember in my fam;)

while my sis was at the temple last week, i got to watch them at my parents house. it was a party & a half, as you can clearly see:

ok, so preston is totally bawling in this pic...but for the most part he was perfectly fine chillin' with his aunt laur.

smiles!

i let matthew take pics with my phone...which is why there are so many. i just needed to document that sometimes luke does, in fact, smile for pictures.

my grandma norda's jazzy wheelchair is by far the most popular activity at grandma & grandpa gardner's. it won't be too long before i'll have too many nieces/nephews to fit on the jazzy all at once.

grace thought she was so cool on the beach bike.

i'll have to post pics we took while waiting outside the temple for my sister's wedding. they're pretty classic too, & i miss my texas fam already!

mumford & sons.

it was a lovely evening last night at the mumford & sons show. i've wanted to see these guys live for years, & i could NOT pass up the chance to finally see them in the great state of utah! they were incredible, way better live than i was expecting...it was at the great saltair so the view was beautiful too!

my little sister gets married tomorrow & so ends the last few weeks of CRAZYNESS. it's been so awesome having all the fam back together but i am ready for school to start & to get back into some form of routine!

happy weekend!

mon salle de bain! (my bathroom)

thanks to a super awesome IKEA run with ally this week, my bathroom is finally tolerable. unless you look in the shower...there's black mold, which i have no idea what to do about, & the bathroom is seriously the oldest room in the house. it's falling apart. i ought to talk to my landlord about it....anyway. here's how you make ghetto look less ghetto. or at least how i did it.

this is my little corner of the bathroom. i inherited the mirror from my friend ryan when he moved out of logan...it's a favorite of mine! i bought the stool from ikea for 4 bucks, so now i have a little nook to get ready at. ignore the kitty litter.

i like hanging things skiwompus. i don't know why...it's just a thing. but anyways, i bought the framed mirrors also at IKEA for 2 dollars each. before, i had a ghetto painting i got for 50 cents at the DI that would never hang straight. it was bad.

the no parking sign came with the house...awesome, i know. the dresser used to be an ugly cream color, but luke & i bought new knobs & spray painted the thing black. i also bought a bin to keep all our cleaning supplies in.

i made this for 3 dollars...saw the cut out at ben franklin crafts & decided it'd look awesome painted green. it hangs right next to our bathroom door, above the light switch.

i know that's not very classy, but come on. i couldn't resist. hanging it right above the toilet makes it clear...NO SPRINKLING WHILE YOU'RE TINKLING.

i bought 2 green rugs to (kind of) match the peace sign decor as well as the oddly colored shower curtain. we also installed the toilet paper holder as there was none when we moved in.

so...yeah. i guess it's sort of coming along! yay!

even feminists dream of their wedding day... ;)

i secretly can't wait for the day i get married.

okay, it's probably not so secret anymore... everyone & their dog knows luke probably isn't going anywhere. & while i still am being picky on a LOT of things  (at least a year engagement, no i still don't know if i'm gonna take your last name, & yes i do want to adopt) the wedding planning part seems...fun. (i'm sure casie would kill me for saying that, as i see now how very stressful it is, too.)

i have a few....pretty awesome ideas, if i say so myself. thanks to pinterest.

i'm seriously obsessed with these center pieces. they are lovely.

a polaroid guest book!!! amazing!

my colors (kind of). i know for a fact i want sunflowers...everywhere. & no 2 bridesmaids in the same dress. also, i will be barefoot.. & my dress will be nowhere near that poofy. but you get the idea.

fingers crossed i can force some sort of bowtie on the groom ;)

hello, pretty pearl ring (no diamonds!!!! no way!)

& if it would look exactly like this...that'd be awesome.

my next tattoo (gosh dangit they're addicting!)

 

i kinda want to get "namaste" tattooed on me.

probably my wrist...or shoulder (though i wanted to save my shoulder for my cheshire cat/nesta tribute tattoo). hmmm.

also, i think i want to get it written in arabic, instead of this. it'd look like this:

ناماستي

i love arabic because it reminds me of logan. half my friends there were from iran, iraq, saudi arabia or lebanon. they taught me so much about life, love, & not judging people (hello? i was so racist before i went to college! sad face.)

i also love namaste because it stems from india, one of my favorite countries.

it's also a belief i've held very dear to me, & it will remind me to live by namaste (instead of judging people/starting debates with people all the time. i'm really good at that.)

also, arabic looks cool. also, i speak a little bit of arabic. enta shamsi! habibe!

worldwide on 25th.

last week luke & i also got to go to the worldwide on 25th festival! i love ogden so much! 25th street was filled with food from around the world, street dancers, vendors, even a parade! 

i thought they weren't actually people "from around the world," until my friend mikki tried to talk to some of the france dancers, & they literally spoke no english. it was crazy! (i was too shy to talk to them...which sucks. i need to practice my francais!)

we had indian food, peach cobbler (the best), sushi, & roosters... the perfect combo of food from around the world if you ask me.

the dancers were awesome, but what stunk is how freakin' hot it was. luke & i left by 6:30 because we were sweating. freakishly sweating.

we both said as we left, had it been seattle weather, it would have been perfect! sigh.