Cousins!

#1. Best Buddies:)
Ryan: "I miss Drew":)

#2. Saving the world from chaos...or creating it?

#3. Isn't he cute?

#4. Audrey was our little hairdresser:)

#5. Drew's first haircut:)

From the 4th of July up until this last week we've had our cousins in town! From sleepovers, to movies, to the Children's Museum, it's been a blast! It was so sad to see them go home, and we can't wait to see them again:) I wanted to post some of the things we did individually, because they are such funny stories, but here are some pictures we took throughout the week of different things.

Happy Independence Day! :)

The 4th has always been one of my favorite holidays. To me, it is a day to reflect on the Lord's hand in one of our greatest blessings- our country. This year was NO exception:) We went to the Parade in Provo... Parade: slightly lame, but hanging with family was GREAT:) After the parade, we headed back to Diana and Kip's house to have a BBQ. I seems like it's been a while since we've had so much family at a gathering. The one person missing though was Emily. She decided to dance in the Stadium of Fire for the second year in a row with some friends. (We got tickets through her studio and through intense mouse-clicking in the 8 minutes that they sold out:) So that night, we headed off to Stadium of Fire. We got there and it was a little debatable- freedom pageant or Hannah Montana concert. It was a great show. Some of our favorites were the Dancers (obviously) and the Blue Man Group. Of course, the high-pitched screams were LOUD reminders that thousands of little girls were really there for Miley Cyrus. Emily actually had a chance to meet her, and talk with her for about three minutes. Out of all of the things they could have talked about, they chose to discuss Dippin' Dots.... She still says somebody snapped a picture, so I'm waiting for that, and then I will definitely post it. Not to mention, the fireworks were ABSOLUTELY SPARKLING! I can't wait for the 4th next year:)

Precision Dance Camp:)

So last week, the Drill team got to have a personal dance camp with some members of the BYU Cougarettes. We had an absolute blast, and we learned a lot. Over the course of 3 days, we learned 5 routines, and went through a series of classes ranging from leaps to ballet. On Saturday, we had Kneader's cater lunch... (Can you say yum!?) The whole week was full of team bonding and lots and lots of HARD WORK! I won the "Most Hardworking" at the end of the week, and even though it was just a little slip of paper, we were all so tired that I took a ridiculous amount of joy from it:) I'm still trying to figure out how to put home videos onto my blog to show some of the routines we learned, so if anybody knows how please help me out:)

Saying Goodbye...

The Whole Crew

How Sweet:)

Don't they just look all ready to go?

Little Buddies:)

So as you read in my last post, Lauren left last Thursday. We met her up at the airport to say goodbye, and to take some last minute pictures. After months and months of talking about this day, it was a completely different story to actually follow through. Of course for security reasons, we couldn't take her any further than the checking her bags and to the metal detectors, but it was so worth the final goodbye. On the way home, the radio played song after song- I swear- that reminded us all of Lauren.

It's been quite an adjustment in our home, seeing as Lauren and I were together 24/7. When asked where Lauren is, Ryan likes to say: "Lauren is at home."
Somebody says she's not, he just says, "Oh, Lauren is on the airplane."
He sits there and thinks about it for a second, and then he says, "Why?"
After thinking about it a little more, Ryan just says, "I want to go on the airplane too!"
Now every time anybody asks where Lauren is, Ryan's reply is, "On the airplane"
Sorry Lauren, looks like you're going to have to hang out on that airplane for the next two years....

We sure you miss you guys, but we're so excited to start hearing back from you about all of your AMAZING ADVENTURES!

We're Gonna Party Like it's 1999!

Lauren left this last Thursday (yes, on her 17th birthday) for Tahiti. In case you haven't read previous posts, here's an update. Lauren is my bestest buddy, and she decided to go with her parents who were recently called as Mission Presidents for the Papeete Tahiti Mission. We decided that she absolutely couldn't leave until we had a party for her, so last Tuesday a bunch of friends met us at the park to hang and have ice cream. We had a blast playing games, signing a t-shirt for Lauren, listening to music, and just chatting. As I said at the party, the pictures in the slideshow have numbers for any of you that want copies of them. It was a blast. By the way, I have somebody's pan, so PLEASE call me if you are looking for it!