flying by the seat of our pants

This week has been a crazy busy one.

It has also been the week of the day of my birth.

(The big 2-0. super exciting. Mostly because Kolton no longer has a teeny bopper wife)

I never really get excited about my birthdays because It's just never been a big deal, but this year I was SO excited!

I have no idea why.

However, we did do a lot of super cool stuff, so I guess I had reasons to be excited. (I apologize, however, for the lack of pictures that may have made this even remotely interesting. still working on being the photographer...)

On Tuesday I went to the temple with the Monteview Ward for baptisms for the dead. (I'm the secretary in the YW) and it was so great. Instead of being dunked a million times, I got to help the girls that were being dunked and stayed nice and dry. Kolton was doing the baptizing and I was handing towels to those coming out of the water and it was just kinda neat to be in there together.

From Tuesday to Wednesday we went with my family to Jackson Hole. We called our trip "flying by the seat of our pants" because we had absolutely no idea what we were going to do once we got there.

Seriously, we had no idea.

But it was kinda fun because when someone got a good idea we just went with it and did stuff we never had before.

The original (tentative, flying by the seat of our pants) plan was to stop in Jackson and then drive through Yellowstone Park and stay in West. Once we got to Jackson, however, the plan got changed up a bit. We all took a turn down the Alpine Slide. Kolton especially enjoyed this part. He got out his little stopwatch and timed himself as he went down (he's kind of a nerd) and I think he did it in about a minute and a half. None of the rest of us were really that concerned about how fast we could go down, so we didn't have any times to compare his to. Bummer.

Then, on a whim we decided to stop by the Bar J Chuckwagon for dinner and a show. Only my parents had been there before, so it was kinda fun-but probably a one-time thing. The only problem with flying by the seat of your pants is that when you don't really have a plan and finally do get a plan, you might not get the best deal...or seats.  We showed up a Bar J's about five minutes before it started and were on the very last corner table. Therefore, the last to get food (we got all the rejected food that nobody else wanted) and we had to really squint our eyes to see the show.

But overall it was pretty fun. Mostly because the show had a fiddler that blew my mind. I had never heard someone play the fiddle before and this guy probably ruined all hope of ever enjoying another fiddler because he was just so dang good! He was flying through his little romp and song and it was pretty neat.

After the show, we decided we might want to find a hotel room. Everywhere in town was full or super spendy (it was Jackson, after all) so we ended up at the dumpiest, most expensive Super 8 I've ever seen. That's another thing about flying by the seat of your pants-you call the number 411 repeatedly. I'm sure those operators were sick to death of us, especially when my sister asked "Do you have any, like, nice hotels?"

Maybe that's why they decided to send us to the Super 8....

But we lived to tell about it, so it honestly wasn't that bad.

The next morning we all got up and had a little planning meeting wondering what we should do that day. After seeing a bunch of white water rafting buses carting people around the day before, we decided that that sounded kinda fun and gave it a go.

We had an awesome time, even though I was scared to death, the water was freezing, and I got in trouble with the guide for grabbing onto Kolton while we went over the rapids instead of paddling like I was supposed to do. (whoops!)

After that, we decided we'd had enough partying to last us a while and headed on home. It was a great vacation and we really enjoyed ourselves.

Thanks Ma and Pa Newman! :)

On Thursday, Kolton headed into town to grab some parts and I wondered if maybe some birthday presents were included until he informed me that he had forgotten his wallet at home. (bummer) However, he did tell me that he'd bring home some dinner, so that doubly made up for it. He had a gift card to Applebee's and used it to bring home a few fiesta lime chickens and spinach and artichoke dip (our favorite!) I couldn't believe that guy!

On Friday my mom treated me and my sisters to a town day for my birthday. We went shopping, got pedicures, and ran a million errands. We left the house at nine that morning and got home at about eleven that night! it was a long day and I was exhausted, but we had a really nice time. None of us had been to the mall in forever so that was reallly fun, and pedicures are about the best things ever, so it was a good day.

On Sunday we had a busy busy day. Kolton woke me up at about six singing "Happy Birthday" with his arms full of presents. That's the way to wake up, man. He told me I could open one, but I just couldn't help myself and I talked him into just letting me open all of them. I can't handle the suspense. Then we ran off to Newdale to Kolton's sister's ward because they were blessing their baby, Calvin. We had a nice (and super yummy) dinner with his family before we headed back home. I made Kolton watch The Lake House with me while we enjoyed our relaxing Sunday before things got really crazy.

Soon enough, our little house was full of my family-including my grandparents and aunt and uncle and their family, and Kolton's family. We had ourselves a humdingin' barbeque! We were glad to get the chance to finally pay our families back for all that they've done for us this summer, especially all the meals they've fed us.

All in all, it was a pretty good birthday week, and a great way to end my teenage years :)