So long, summer. It's been real.

Obviously I am no good at blogs. I'm assuming true bloggers are the ones that write in theirs regularly and read lots of other people's. I do neither.

Here's an overview of my summer past 8 months (in no specific order):

My nephew August Crew Mitchell was born.

The month of August--that's a whole blog post in itself. But I'll summarize. My brothers Scotty and Seth both have birthdays in August. The 12 year mark since Scotty died was on August 16th. Which is also Seth's birthday. My brother-in-law John has a birthday in August, too. Laura and John celebrate their wedding anniversary in August. So do Seth and Allecia. I went on a cruise to the Caribbean. I laid on gorgeous beaches in Mexico, snorkeled and played with monkeys in Roatán, Honduras, and went tubing down a river inside huge caves in Belize (our dorky driver/river guide kept telling dirty jokes and saying everything in Belize is "unbelizable"). I also went to Arizona and saw some of my best friends.

Scotty

dinner on the Carnival Dream

Cozumel, Mexico

monkeys in Roatán

Me, Mitch, Thomas, Michael, Andrea, and Mac in AZ

I visited my little younger brother Seth and his wife Allecia in Idaho (twice).

The temperature was 10 below when this was taken

I got a job in Salt Lake City in February and moved up to Salt Lake City in July. 

Had a relationship begin and end.

My high school boyfriend, Ryan Newson, passed away. RIP.

me and Ryan - Prom 2006

I got my wisdom teeth out. Amazing experience--no joke.

Attended my annual girls reunion with my sisters, sisters-in-law, and my mom.

dancing at my girls reunion

Hung with lots of family lots of times.

baby niece, Reese

Just had fun.

cousin Amie's wedding

BYU national rugby champs

golfing in Bountiful, UT

because Dunkin Donuts = fun

monster truck rally

me and Steph

Laura and a "toydle"

Christmas 2012

Christmas was all 22 of my immediate family members at home.

Christmas was feeding the homeless.

Christmas was seeing Les Miserables.

It was watching a bunch of other movies, too.

Christmas was a staring contest. A new side of my sister-in-law Kat came out. Respect.

Christmas was sleeping in.

Christmas was sunny skies with temperatures in the 50s.

It was making Oreo truffles, chocolate/caramel dipped pretzels, etc.

Christmas was caroling meowing and barking on all fours. Still not sure if I should feel proud or embarrassed of that.

It was a crapload of presents of all shapes and sizes. See hanging diaper picture below.

Christmas was Dominoes pizza for Christmas dinner.

It was John getting stitches.

Christmas was a miniature dance party and finding out that Aaron, my brother-in-law, is a closet professional dancer.

Christmas was eating lots of Oreo shakes.

It was staying up late playing picture telephone.

Christmas was reading about the birth of Jesus in Luke 2.

Christmas was, in one word, happiness.

Vegas weather

Utah weather

I think it is safe to say that Laura is terrible at staring contests.

Straight up pulled that tortilla mask out of her shirt.

"Maybe Santa will bring you a Skittle." -Ann

Evidence of our weirdness

Swollen

Since there were plenty of diapers to go around,  why not use one to wrap a Christmas present? Brilliant, John.

Like aunt like niece. Love to have our nails painted.

Les Mis!

Contents of My Purse

 Do you think the contents of someone's purse can tell you what that person is like? Here is what is in my garbage dump purse.

Ibuprofen, Dayquil, cough drops, Cepacol throat soothers, and some other  antibiotic

I am neither ill, nor a hypochondriac. Those meds have been in my purse for years. I once had a nasty cold/flu and was taking all of those drugs.

3 pens, 2 pencils, and a BIC marker

No, I am not a passionate writer or artist. I just have OCD tendencies and I get carried away with the thought, "I'll need a back-up just in case this one runs out."

Taco Bell sauce packets

I like Taco Bell. However, those have also been in my purse for years. I once stashed them in there so that the next time Taco Bell people were skimpy with their sauce, I could bust these out. Every time I have gotten Taco Bell since then I have forgotten about these packets.

17 cents

I'm poor. I am also too lazy to put change in my wallet.

Blistex, lip gloss, and more lip gloss that has not been used since  I was 15 (that's 9 years ago, people)

 What girl doesn't have these things in her purse?

gum

 Or this?

Kleenex

 This was on top of my dresser when I went home to Vegas so I put it in my purse "just in case." Insert hypochondriac and OCD comments [here].

Trash. Mostly receipts, an empty bottle of ibuprofen, and packing list for Thanksgiving in Vegas

 Sometimes I think my purse is equivalent to a trash can, so receipts, movie ticket stubs, empty ibuprofen bottles, gum wrappers, etc. start to multiply like rabbits.

A petrified gummy bear

 I WAS SAVING IT FOR LATER. And forgot about it.

Tootsie Rolls

Someone had leftover Halloween candy so they gave it to me for my birthday one week later.

Do you have abnormal things in your purse?

Fun

Prepare yourself for a lot a pictures. 

Lots of pictures means lots of good stuff to document. The last little while has been filled with lots of good stuff. Most importantly, lots of time with my family. I experience true joy when I am with them. Nothing better than that. One of the nights we were all together we played a game where one person thinks of a question, then everyone answers on a little piece of paper, and the person who asked the question reads off the answers. Each person gets a turn to guess who wrote what. When you guess right, you get a point. When you guess wrong, it is the next person's turn. If your answer is guessed correctly then you are out. Anyhow, (I know my sister Laura already mentioned this on her blog here) but I have to mention it, too. The question was: "If there was a zombie apocalypse outside, who at this table would you throw out to the zombies? Let's just say 4 of the responses had either Charlie (my cousin) or Charley (my brother) in them. Hahaha. Suckers. This is just one reason why I love my family. We all bust a gut laughing when we get together and do funny things like play that fun game. 

Now let's take a tour through my pictures.

I recently decided that I was going to make a cake that I saw on Pinterest when I actually used to get on that site. Aesthetically, if I do say so myself, it was rad. (Taste-wise; eh. I am going to change the recipe if I ever make it again.) And what better occasion than to make it for my cool niece Weslie's birthday?

Niece Weslie turns 8!

This colorful explosion has my nephew Mac written all over it.

 I also made several trips down to Vegas and back to Utah. This picture was on the way back up to Utah in the Fillmore-ish area. Amazing, right?

On the way down to Vegas

Then it was time to get ready for my brother's wedding and reception. It turned out to be awesome. 

The night before the wedding we partied with this bad boy.

 My brother Seth and his (now) wife Allecia were married in the Las Vegas LDS temple. What a pretty place it is!

Me and my sissy waiting for Seth and Allecia to come out of the temple

My cute, fat niece, Reese.

Meee-OOW!

Let me just take a minute to tell you about my cousins Charlie and Heather (far left and far right). Seth and I grew up with them. They live in California, and all growing up we would spend as much time with them as possible. They were even with us when my brother Scotty died 11 years ago.They'd come out to Vegas for a week or two, and we'd go out there to Visalia, CA for a week or two to visit them. Many of my fondest memories in life involve these two. They're funny, creative, artistic, and purely awesome.  Candy, tents, toilet papering, ghost stories, secret clubs, water parks, Wal-Mart runs, late-night exploring, and the movie Clue are just a FEW words that describe my childhood with them. I love them like it's nobody's business. The four of us being together at Seth's wedding was the first time we had been reunited in four years, which, of course, was four years too long. 

Anyway, the reception was in my backyard. Lights, good food, good company, dancing, and a slide show (that I could only watch for a couple minutes, because, well duh, my baby brother got married and has a new partner-in-crime so girl's gonna get a little choked up). Oh, and sparklers to send them off!

Mac's got some mean dance moves which are clearly too spastic to capture with  the camera on my phone.

So Seth and Allecia went off to CA to honeymoon it up, and the rest of my immediately family (with the exception of my brother Charley, unfortunately) headed to Zion National Park in Utah to go camping. First we stopped at a tiny little restaurant right outside of Zion. 

My cute nephew Skippy means business

We set up camp here:

A pretty impressive backdrop, wouldn't you say?

 We went canyoneering at Pine Creek (thanks Aaron and Brian). So so cool.

Kat lookin fierce

Me going down the 100+ foot repel in Pine Creek Canyon

We hiked the Narrows. Beautiful and so fun.

I also canyoneered Key Hole with my mom, dad, brother-in-law Aaron, sister Ann, sister Laura and brother-in-law John, and niece Weslie. It was awesome. All in all, the camping trip was so fun. Canyoneering, good food, family, hikes, amazing scenery, etc. THANK YOU SARAH AND AARON FOR PLANNING AND PUTTING EVERYTHING TOGETHER. Right before we left camp, we decided to figure out who would plan the next family reunion and when it would be. My sissy Ann said, "Well we'll have another one when Audrey gets married, whenever that is." It got pin-drop silent as everyone simultaneously turned their heads and looked at me. All I could respond with was a

"Gulp."

On the way home Autumn had a little bit of chocolate ice cream. But you can't really tell. :)

So, life has been good. I'm so glad I have had such awesome experiences this summer before I start my LAST semester at BYU this fall. Weeee!

The End.