Terry's Chocolate Oranges

Move over Chocolate covered cinnamon bears, these babies just became my new weakness. They are delectable, mouth watering, to-die-for chocolaty goodness.

Yes, it is love. True love.

Now go get yourself one.

Word of the Day

NEPOTISM- [nep-uh-tiz-uhm]

Definition: favouritism shown to relatives or close friends by those with power or influence.

Out of an absurd argument over my mother allowing me to eat some of her frozen berries and not another person, I guess the good thing that came of this heated discussion is learning a new word.

Nepotism. N-e-p-o-t-i-s-m. Nepotism.

Goodbye Fall Semester 2010

You have been good to me. You have given me great experiences, and by great I mean a mixture of some extremely difficult and others fun and exciting. I was blessed with 5 incredible roommates that have taught me so much with both their words and their examples.

Highlights of the semester:
Prank wars with our FHE brothers
Traveling to California with Natalie, her brother, and their friend.(un sliding off the road from all the snow and putting a lovely dent in my car)
The best Thanksgiving break ever, including getting a surprise visit from my uncle Don who lives in Australia.
Road trips to Utah visiting with Hailey, Jayson, Alyssa, and Dustin
Driving all the way to Boise for a date, only to get stood up.
Staying awake ALL night during the weeknights and going to bed by 10 on the weekends.
Bubble blowing contests.
Making Anna look like an Avatar with blue cupcake frosting.
Adding new quotes to our quote wall.
Homework parties with my roommates which turn into talking about boys, watching movies, Facebooking, and late night runs to Taco Bell or Wendy’s.
Listening to Kid Kudi evertyime we were in the car together.
Painting on mustaches.
Talking “ghetto”.
Having conversations in movie quotes.
SNUGGLING (yes, I just said the “S” word ;)
Getting kicked out of a movie and escorted into another movie.
Watching “She’s the Man” in a fort.
Sarah and Bennett’s wedding.
Going on dates with Natalie.
Trips to Winco with Sarah.
Snowboard/sledding with boys from Shelbourne apartments.

I will miss Stephanie, Alyssa, and Anna with my WHOLE HEART

I hope Stephanie has incredible experiences on her mission.
I hope Anna won’t get bored in Chicago a month after she’s gone.
And I hope Alyssa has fun finally seeing that boy of hers in Georgia.

I love you HOMEGIRLS

Copy Cat

So I copied Jayson's post, who I told to copy Becca's. With that being said, Here is 30 things you may or may not have known about me.

1.I was born in the same hospital room as my mother was born in which was in Sacramento, California.
2.I have a total of 9 siblings but only 1 is a full sibling.
3.After I get my elementary teaching degree, my dream is to move to Alaska and teach for a few years.
4.People’s first impressions of me are always wrong mostly because I act like I am shy, but
5.I am not shy.
6.It is almost painful for me to NOT sing along with a song that I know the words to. Sometimes I am even caught lipping the words to songs while I am half asleep.
7.I would take an action or suspense movie any day over a chick flick
8.I detest shopping
9.But I have an obsession with knitted hats
10.I used to be a bomb cheerleader.
11.I’m awful at cooking. But I love to do it.
12.I tend to be extremely sarcastic but most of the time people believe me and think I am some one that I am not.
13.Thai food is my favorite next to Mediterranean food
14.I sang in my school choirs for 7 years. I loved it. And it gave me a great appreciation for classical and jazz music as well as a love for musicals.
15.I love writing letters. Most likely if you are a good friend of mine you have once received one of these letters from me. If not, give me your address and I will most definitely send you a love letter.
16.Sometimes when I am bored, I put on make-up because I find it fun.
17.I have moved on from my country obsession song from being “Need You Now” by Lady A, to “Colder Weather” by my favorite Zac Brown Band.
18.I laugh really easy
19.Whenever I see horses, my heart smiles. I love them.
20.People use to know me as the one who could sleep anytime anywhere. Now, my bedtime is around 2-4am.
21.The only place I ever seem to hurt myself is my right knee. Rollerblading accident, long boarding accident, and cutting it open on an old rusty bullet hole from a car.
22.I would love to be a librarian. I love books.
23.I bought glow-in- the-dark stars but only one of them stayed on my ceiling. So sometimes I will lay in bed and shine my flashlight on it, watch it glow, watch it go dark, then shine my flash light on it again. Then repeat the process until I fall asleep.
24.I have ADD with life. I can’t stay in one place for too long before I am ready to go on another adventure somewhere. Hence why I find myself going to Utah on many weekends.
25.I eat my bell peppers like apples.
26.I like to go to the movies by myself sometimes. And on the rare occasion that I do go shopping, I have to go by myself…most of the time.
27.My weakness is chocolate covered cinnamon bears. Mmmm
28.I wish I could be a spy
29.One time I went on a date and the guy took me through the kitchen window instead of the front door.
30.I like to drink the pepperoncini juice.

Quick trip to Utah

On Saturday morning I left to meet my mom in Pocatello where we joined cars and headed to Salt Lake. It was just a quick day trip wichi involved:

• Roaming around a mall
  
• visiting with Dustin for a few minutes while I dropped off his stuff
  
• Going and getting all you can eat sushi (although I only had about one rolls worth of sushi on account I got severley nauseous early on in the meal. I think someone tried to poison me. Or maybe it was the octopus that I ate.) (The strange animal picture is a special sushi roll our chef made for us. how cute)
  
• Then going to Temple Square to see the lights and tour some buildings.

It was lovely.

My Values

For my online English class, we were asked to do an assignment in which we list 20 of our top values that we strive to live by in our life. Here.Are.Mine.

1. Integrity: Stand up for what you believe in and don’t let others influence you for the worst.
2. Love: Love all those that surround you. Love your God, and love yourself.
3. Health: Take care of the body that you have been given. It is a gift, it is a temple, it is sacred. Don’t treat it like it doesn’t mean anything to you.
4. Spirituality: Create a relationship with your Father in Heaven and continuously develop that relationship.
5. Kindness: Everyone deserves to be treated with the utmost kindness, even if you do not agree with their actions or their own values.
6. Service: Give back to your community, family, and friends by serving them in any way possible, small or large means.
7. Happiness: Be happy and spread that happiness to others. Being happy feels good. Choose to see the brighter sides of things.
8. Patience: Wait to worry, don’t stress about the small stuff and just relax.
9. Honesty: Be honest and truthful to your friends/family/and every day acquaintances
10. Faith: Have faith in yourself and with the Lord. Know that you can do anything you put your mind to and know that the Lord with help you along the way.
11. Balance: Find a balance with you work, school, family, church and social life. Keep your priorities, but don’t let one go unnoticed over the others.
12. Charity: Give back to those who are less fortunate than you.
13. Compassion: Show othersthat you care about them. Everyone wants to feel cared about.
14. Control: Control your emotions and don’t let yourself get addicted to anything that will reorder your priorities in life.
15. Discipline: Make sure you get things done when they need to be done, and don’t let yourself succumb to weaknesses and pressures of the world.
16. Education: Continuously be learning. Read books, go to school, study, and learn to love it.
17. Fun: Have fun in life! Do something adventurous! "Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured" -G.B.H
18. Gratitude: Be grateful for your blessings and all that you have been given and the people that have been put in your life.
19. Joy: Find joy in all that you do. Look at the glass half full.
20. Nature: Put yourself out in nature. This is where our spirit and revelations will thrive.

It is finally here.

Tomorrow I am officially California bound.
Leaving at approximately 10am and arriving at my grandparents house at approximately 10pm.
Words cannot even describe how excited I am to see my family!!
As most of my friends know, because I talk about them all of the time, I LOVE my family with all of my HEART.
A shout out goes to...

my grandparents:
Merl & Candy Ward

my aunts and uncles and darling little cousins:
Dani, Paul, Brooklyn, Maya, & Garrett Madsen
Matt & Sarah Ward
Mike Ward
Steve, Leah, Gordon, Oscar, Ellie, & Maggie Ward
Don, Elise, Taylor, Annabelle, & Emmeline Ward (even though they will not be there :( )
Jenny & Jerid Hensley

I have missed you all so incredibly much. You make me laugh. You make me happy.
One.More.Day and the long days of playing Nertz, going to movies, making delicious food, talking, laughing and smiling all of the time will be here.
:D

Just for you Santa...

The lovely ladies of apartment 309 have built you a fire place and hung stockings with care.

Made from cardboard, christmas lights, construction paper, and tissue paper.

and, we made a chain. Counting down the days until Thanksgiving and Christmas...hence the different color schemes.

It.Rocks.

Dear Snow,

Whom, may I ask, do you think you are? You waltz right into Rexburg acting like you own the place.
Well NEWS FLASH, clearly you DO NOT.
So you can run and tell that....homeboy.
The weather has been incredible here. Just yesterday, yes YESTERDAY, I was walking outside in a t-shirt not even needing a light jacket. Then to my dismay, I woke up to you floating around outside of my window and you have not stopped floating around since then.
Are you trying to suck the life (and warmth) right out of me?!?
Are you trying to suck the life out of my bank account? Because this means new footwear most definitely.
I hope I have not offended you in any way, because in all honesty I do love you. Just not right now.
Maybe later.
So you can go back from wherever it is that you came from and come again sometime after Thanksgiving.
Then, and only then, will I enjoy your bitter coldness, re-creating you out of white computer paper, building snowmen out of you, learning to snowboard on you, making snowballs out of you, and possibly snow shoeing in you.

Yours truly,
Your number one fan....after Thanksgiving.

P.S- Oh, and don't over-stay your visit this season. Becuase as my memory recalls, last season.....you did. Please and Thank You.

Going, going.....gone?

I want to leave.

Get out.

Go somewhere.

Move.

Take a trip.

I don't feel like I belong here.

But I don't feel like I belong anywhere else...

Where do I go now?

I'm stuck in limbo.

Do I stay or do I go?

Oh life.

Please give me another adventure.

What I wish I knew back then

This evening, I came to a sudden realization. Kind of a personal realization, but nonetheless most likely will pertain to many in this world, so let me share with you.

I will start with me, at least the person who I used to be.

As long as I can remember, I have never accepted myself for who I am. I never thought I was smart, pretty, funny, outgoing, ect.ect.ect. I just thought I was plain old me. And more often then not, I hated that plain old me. I had beautiful, amazing, brilliant friends who surrounded me and I never thought I could be like them. At times, I refused to hang out with them because I was embarassed that they would be seen with someone like me.

But that was then. This is now.

Being raised in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and have gone through 6 years of the Young Women program, it is not until a year and a half later that I am starting to learn what they were trying to teach me all of those 6 years.

and that is... Divine Nature and Individual Worth

I guess it wasn't necessarily a "sudden realization" that I had this evening, but rather a lesson that I have slowly been learning for the past few months. A lesson valuable beyond measure.



"Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, "Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?" Actually, who are you not to be. You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightnened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in all of us. When we let our own light shine, we unconsiously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." (Nelson Mandela in his 1994 Inagural Speech)

Ahhhh. I just LOVE that quote. And every single line is truth. After learning how incredible it truly is to call ourselves children of God, is when I started to realize the importance of every individual. We are capable of such wonderful things but we make it extremley hard on ourselves to accomplish those wonderful things when we don't even believe in who we are and fully comprehend who's we are: children of a Heavenly King.

I feel that I have been liberated from my own fear. My fear of never being good enough for anyone or anything. The confidence that I now have in myself feels incredible and when I see others who I know feel like I used to feel, I just want to give them all of my new found knowledge. Give them that faith, confidence, and light. Because everyone deserves to know who they are and who's they are.

"If you could envision the type of person God intended you to be, you would rise up and never be the same again."

Spontaneous is my middle name

Ok, not really. It's actually Regan if you were wondering.
But I do love love love being spontaneous and doing things on a whim.
For example:
Today my first class started at 12:45. I woke up around 11 and got ready to go to class. As I started driving to my class I was nearing the stop light where I would turn left to go towards campus, I thought to myself "Should I go to class? Nahhh." So instead....I turned right. And you know where this took me? To Idaho Falls.
T.J Max to be exact. Where I did some wonderful shopping.

In all honesty it was a GORGEOUS day today and my teacher wasn't even going to be in class, we were just going to watch a movie about some science stuff...boooorrrriiinnnggg.

Then on my way home, I made another little detour
to
the
MOVIE THEATER!!!

I went and saw "Life as we know it". It was cute. Just the perfect movie to see by myself.

Overall it was a fantastic trip to Idaho Falls. (Secretly, I almost drove to Utah....it's probably good that I did not)

So if anyone ever wants or needs a spontaneous trip, I AM YOUR GIRL :D

Mustache Mondays

We just got a Sammies resturant here in Rexburg. And on monday nights if you come with a mustache, you get a 75cent grilled cheese. But of course my roommates and I thought it was a 75cent milkshake (if we would have known otherwise, we probably would not have gone). But it was a great time nonetheless. We painted on our mustaches after FHE and drove over to Sammies where we were the only ones with mustaches. Peoples reactions=priceless.

Loved it. Love my roomates

That is all.

P.S- The first two pictures were signs found in the ladies restroom. I found them quite comical.

Trip to Utah

A few weekends ago I decided to make a trip to Salt lake. It was.....frustrating to say the least. But there were some great highlights about it:

• Going to the U of U football game with Hailey and watching a childhood friend play (and make a touchdown!)
  
• Eating at Rumbi
  
• Riding on the fun shuttle thing through Salt Lake
  
• Hanging out with Jayson
  
• Hanging out with Dustin
  
• Visiting with Alyssa and crashing at her place for a night.
  
• A trip to my beloved Herbs for Health.

I love making trips to Utah and visiting all of my great friends. I will be back in November, see you all then!

Let the festivities begin...

It is definitely Halloween season. Which means...

• Scary movies
• Halloween cookies
• Caramel Apples
• Pumpkin carving
• Costumes
• Parties
• Dance Parties
• and random guys knocking on the girls apartment doors dressed up in Abominable Snowmen costumes.
  
  

Yeah, I love Halloween.

Pokey a.k.a Pocahontas

That was my Redfish name.

I asked them why, and they said it was because of the resemblance.


I don't see it. Do you?


But at the moment I feel the Pocahontas part of me wanting to come out. The only place I want to be right now is in the mountains.


I'm getting some serious Redfish homesickness.


I'm itching to go camping, backpacking, hiking, rock climbing, kayking (just around the river bend), white water rafting, rope swinging (even though they chopped it down :'( Blasphemy!!), sitting around fires, playing the harmonica, star gazing, hot spring-ing, and every other fun thing you can do in the wilderness.


I miss it. A lot.


So yesterday Sarah and I were coming back from Jamba Juice and decided we wanted to go on a drive out to the wilderness. Usually one would stop and think and plan about such a thing. But we did not. We hit up the gas station and drove.

• 
  

Drove out of Rexburg and towards this beautiful little town called Driggs. Let me just tell you how gorgeous it was. The trees were in the perfect fall-color stages of reds, yellows, and oranges and we had a view of the Tetons the whole way. It was a perfect drive.


But I still miss Redfish. and my friends and coworkers. Only 8 more months to go and I will be back. Until then, I will be searching for ways to fill my wilderness void.


See you soon Stanley, Idaho!

Here Comes the Bride

I sincerely hope that after reading the title, the question "is Britni getting married?" did not pop into your head. I understand that I am 19 years old and attending BYU-I DO, but that does NOT mean that I am getting married nor am I even thinking of the subject. This post about marriage is completely centered on my beautiful mother.

Because guess what?

She.Got.Hitched.

October 2nd, 2010 is the day she said "I do".

I went to Boise for the weekend and on friday morning her fiance (now husband-Phil), and her made the announcement that they were getting married the following day. So we headed to the mall to get our outfits. The next day we got ready, went to the flower shop to pick up the bouquets and boutonnieres, then headed to the Rose Gardens. It was a gorgeous day and a wonderful place for a simple wedding.

It was small, simple, and to the point.

We snapped some pictures afterwards and then headed to......the Cheese Cake Factory!!!! Where we loaded up on appetizers, entrees, drinks, and of course CHEESE CAKE.

It was a lovely day. and I love my new siblings :)

Congrats Mom&Phil!

And they lived happily ever after...

Need You Now

For the past hour I have had Lady Antebellum's song "Need You Now" on repeat.

Have you ever had a song, that whenever you hear it played, you just sigh and think..ahhhhhh. Well this is my song. And not because the lyrics pertain to my life in any means, because they do not. But because whenever I hear this song, for some reason, my shoulders relax and I become less stressed. Hence why I have been listening to this song for an hour now. School and life in general is stressful. I even tried buying it as my ringtone but somehow bought it as my ringback. Now the people who call me can hear it, but I am the only one who can not.

This is my song.

Want to listen to it? Click HERE

Dear Rexburg,Idaho

I am writing to you this day to tell you, thank you. Thank you for giving me such a beautiful place to live and learn. I know that you are definitely not appreciated to your fullest extent because most people just view you as a dry waste land with nothing to keep them entertained with. But I disagree. You are gorgeous, and the perfect place for me to live. And you also hold the perfect place for me to continue my education. Which leads me to my next topic: BYU-Idaho. This school in which you hold in your small town is incredible. I can't think of a better place for me (at least for the time being). A place that allows you to pray before every class begins, where there is a picture of the Savior at the front of every classroom, where the school shuts down once a week to hold a devotional for the students to attend, a school that has allowed my testimony to grow ten fold.

Thank you Rexburg. Thank you BYU-Idaho.

Sincerely,

A grateful student

Dear Friend

So I have this dear friend of mine. Her name is

Becca Carlisle

Our friendship began at the beginning of my Redfish season when she invited me to go to the boat box with her and she didn't even know me yet. Now our friendship has progressed to me breaking into her room to listen to her ipod and her feeding me her chocolate cheerios when I am starving.
She is the sweetest :)

oh...and she force feeds me stale cheez-its

I Love Stanley

7/15/10

Today was another busy work day. But at 5 o’clock on the dot I clocked out and went to go find my Volleyball team: BD Idaho. My team consists of me, 7 ft tall Andrew, Josh, and Dustin. Every other Thursday on the front lawn at the Lodge, Redfish holds a volleyball tournament with first place cash prizes. Not all of the teams showed up so we only played 4 teams but it was so much fun. I loved every second of it! Probably because our team kicked butt and we won first place. A whole $15 each was our prize. That is 2 hours of working out in the Gazebo! Our team dominates and I am counting down the days until our next tournament J

After volleyball later that night I went up to the weight room and worked out with Shaylee, Josh, and Adam. It felt great. Shaylee and I are new workout partners J

7/18/10

So yesterday I worked. It was a great day at work. It went smoothly and pretty stress-free. It was absolutely wonderful. When I got off, Dustin asked me to take his car into town and pick up his laundry because he would be working all night. Being the kind soul I am, but really just wanting to drive, I took Megan and we headed into Stanley. Ahhhh, it felt so good to be driving once again, especially stick. So we take his car and laundry back to the lodge so he could check to make sure we got the right clothes. We did, mission accomplished. Megan and I also decided to go camping on a whim. We borrowed Dustin’s “3-4 man tent” bought a lighter, got some wood, threw sweats on, grabed our bedding, and drug Kristine and Becca along with us. We were pretty excited. We had our smore items and some more junk food.

Off to Stanley lake it was. We drive a little ways into some random road and found a free campsite. Awesome. Becca started our fire, Megan and Kristine worked on the tent, and I documented the night. Especially the part when the tent was set up and we realized that Dustin’s “3-4 man tent” was in fact a 2 man tent. That’s okay! We told ourselves it would be….fun! we carried on with our night and started making smores. I don’t know how I always end up getting injured up here. But here is how it happened. So I am making my first smore with a wooden stick that is long but bent in the middle. The marshmallow lights on fire, I try to blow it out, I blow one side out, start to turn the stick so I could blow out the other side, the stick turns too fast and the flaming mallow ends up on my face. Ummm OUCH. My friends laughed and I was in excruciating pain. Now I have 3 blisters on my upper lip. Not awesome.

Then we decided to put on war paint. Also known as charcoal. It totally completed the night. Especially when Kristine decided to just go all out and cover every part of her skin that was showing in charcoal. It was so freaky. She blended into the darkness and all you could see was her eyes. Absolutely terrifying. Pictures just don’t do it justice.

As we start to tell scary stories, a truck pulls up into our camp. Not cool. But it ended up just being Megan’s Cowboy “friend”. Somehow he found out where we were camping- just a little sketchy. But when he left, he left us his hand gun because he was worried about us.

After that we just talked around the campfire, put it out, then talked inside the tent for a while longer. Then came sleep, or shall I say lack-of. I was stuck on the outside of the group with no blankets (my sleeping bag was under everyone cushioning them from the rocks) and no room in 20 degree weather. To sum up the night, it was miserable. Finally at 6:20 am I managed to squeeze out of the tent and get in Megan’s car where I listened to music for another 40 minutes before everyone got up to leave.

We left and megan and I had 30 minutes to get ready for church. Somehow we managed. I went and got breakfast with Dustin then he took me to church. After church Reese was waiting for us in the parking lot so we could go to Mountain Mama’s Art’s and Crafts fair. It was pretty sweet. I bought 2 more hand made copper rings and an awesome necklace.

As for the rest of the day goes, I slept on the beach for an hour and a half went back to my bungalow and slept for another hour. It was much needed sleep. I am still sick :/

7/16- Today we had a Gazebo meeting with the managers. To sum it up, it just made me frustrated. But as I started working, I realized that we did not have anymore Caesar dressing for our salads and wraps. I went to the kitchen to talk to Kelley about it and he said that I would have to make it from scratch. TJ gave me the recipe and sent me to work. It took me forever! The worst part: dealing with the anchovies. I was working across the table from TJ and as I scooped out the little anchovies from their container the smell wafted to my nose and I started gagging. TJ just laughed. And I just gagged. Then it was off to another busy day at work. And when I went into the kitchen later that evening to wash some dishes, a slow song came on the ipod and TJ came over and started dancing with me. everyone just stopped and watched. A little awkward. After work Josh and I did Yoga in the weight room. His girlfriend gave him a beginners yogo DVD and a yoga mat for his birthday so we did some yoga. It was quite entertaining to watch this big jock do all the poses haha. But it felt goooooddd.

7/19- Today was a great day. Want to know why?

1- I had Sushi

2- I watched my #1 all time favorite movie ever: INCEPTION

3- I did both of the above with some pretty rad people.

4- I did all of the above while being in the most gorgeous place in Idaho.

So here is the story of my day. It was my day off, and Reese and Kelley’s as well. So what did we do? We went to Sun Valley where we ran a few errands for Redfiish then we waited, waited until Sushi on Second would open. It was so worth the wait. We had deep fried Calamari and Mahi Mahi Tuna covered in cilantro, lemon juice, and some other herbs for our appetizers. I got a roll with Shrimp, avocado, and creame cheese. I tried Kelley’s rolls. One had spicy tuna and the other had salmon and Ahi tuna and caviar rolled around in wasabi on top of it. AHHHH it was all so delicious!

To top off a day filled with sushi, we went to the movies in Hailey to go see Inception.

It Blew.My.Mind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was an INCREDIBLE movie. I cant stop thinking about it.

7/20- Today I pulled a 13hr work day. To be honest, it wasn’t too bad because it was insanely slow. But it was still really long and I went home and fell asleep within seconds. Not too exciting.

7/21- Today was another 12 hr work day. I went to housing afterward and showered and got ready to go hang out with people only to end up falling asleep on Megan’s bed.

7/23- I thought I had to work another 12 hrs today but SURPRISE I did not! That was a relief. So I went home at 5 and took a 3 hour, much needed, nap. Then I went and hung out with Becka, Rachel, and Jessica in Becka and Kristine’s room in the Ritz. It felt good to get some girl time in and break away from hanging out with guys 90% of the time. But after a while I did end up going to the bunkhouse for Vinyl Friday (Perry and Wyatt own a record player and it is so sweet) where it was 99% guys: Perry, Wyatt, Dustin, Lucas, Mike, Adam, and Shauna. They had the lights off, the black lights on, and the lava lamp on. Haha I love these guys. But then Adam, Josh, and I went to the boat box once again. Always a perfect ending to any day for sure J

A Months Worth of Catching Up

I have been keeping up writing down my days, but not so much with posting them on my blog. Sorry.

But here is what I have so far....

6/28

After work I took a nap. After my nap I decided to walk down to Point campground where we were suppose to be having FHE. Brennen Clegg rode up on a tandom bike and gave me my very first tandem bike ride ever! It was a little frightnening but way fun at the same time. He rode me down to the beach area where they were setting up a volleyball net and playing. There were too many people there so I decided to go to the boulder to see who was climbing that night. It ended up being only a few redfish employees and a bunch of people I didn’t know and they were all just chilling on the top. So I left. I went to the G-spot (general store) and bought some T-shirts. Then I headed back to housing because It was getting dark. It was Josh’s birthday so there was a huge bonfire! Everyone was pretty crazy. Some people were acting like they were five years old, others were pretending they were awesome rappers, one kid whipped out some sweet beat boxing while one guy started chewing out another guy for no reason. There were some new faces as well. A few girls and one guy. When most of the group left josh and adam and I sang Garth Brooks songs. Then Lucas came by but he left too. By the end of it, it was just TJ and I for a bit. We walked to the ritz but I was too tired to hang out by then. I got back to my bunglalow by about 3. Good thing the next day was my day off.

6/29

Today was my day off as well as Megan’s and Emma’s. We decided we were all going to lay out together. We were suppose to meet Emma at the lodge at 11 but when we got there it was cloudy and windy and Emma was nowhere to be found. Meg and I wanted to go try out the paddle boats. I highly do not recommend going on the paddle boats while it is that insanely windy. It was like trying to paddle boat in the ocean. Virtually impossible. Nick told us that we wouldn’t sink. Pretty sure we got incredibly close to doing so. We decided we had enough of paddling one way only to have the waves take us the other way. So we hed to the corrall for lunch where we run into Josh and Adam, we invite them to go to the rope swing with us. Dishwasher Dustin ended up going with us as well. It. Was. Awesome. I finally had the courage to do it and I don’t regret it one bit. It is such an adrenaline rush. Then megan jumped on with me as well and the dustin on it too. SO FUN. But meg fell trying to get off and scraped up her name pretty bad. Then Adam almost fell off but luckily he had a death grip on that sucker because that would have been awful if he fell. When we were done swinging we went on an adventure to explore all of the old run down shacks. When you actually look inside of them, they are way cool and interesting. We decided to go explore up some hills and we ended up finding this super sweet old car. Probably a good 60-70 years old. It had tons of bullet holes going into the drivers seat and then about two or 3 bullet holes that through the driver’s seat and out the back of the car through the trunk. I want to know the story behind this mysterious car!!!!!! So we wanted to take a group picture by it and I open the door so I could stick my head out the window and I sliced my knee on one of the bullet holes on the door! Don’t panic, I never got lock jaw. So all is good. But it was a sweet cut, you could see my cartilage and blood was gushing every where. We then made our way down towards the river where we found part of a train with bullet holes in it as well! All in all it was an incredible day spent with some awesome people and I felt like I was a kid again exploring in the wilderness. Trust me, we will all be back to explore some more J

6/30

As usual I worked 9-5 today. After work was through I was so tired and didn’t feel like walking back to housing right away so I took my book and sat myself down in a chair in front of the lodge. I fell asleep for about 20 minutes, got dinner in the corral and then went back to my chair. Lucas came by and sat next to me and we talked for a few hours, then TJ came and sat next to me for another few hours and we had some good bonding time haha. When he left I played volleyball with some strangers, one of the employees and it was tons of fun! After that it was getting kind of dark so I figured I should head over to housing. I went up to the weight room and hung out with Lucas and Andrew while Josh and Adam worked out. Then we played darts. I am definitely not the best dart player in the world, but it was still exciting and we had a good time. Even though lucas and I lost.

work, sat on porch of lodge for 4 hours:read, slept, dinner, came back talk to lucas, talk to TJ for 2 hours, he drank, talk about girls, free dinner, played vball with Emily and random guys and college vball girl, went up to weight room hung out with lucas and Andrew while josh and adam worked out, played darts, me and lucas lost, the all decided they were my big brothers,

7/1

another day at work. They all kind of blur into one. A guy got mad at me when I told him we didn’t have recycling. Evidently we do, but i had been informed that we didn’t. oh well. After work I watched everyone play volleyball while enjoying my free soft serve ice cream, just one of the perks of working at the gazebo. Redfish put on a big volleyball tournament with cash prizes and everything. I couldn’t find a team in time so for now I just sat and watched and envied their playing time every second. I went to dinner then headed out to play ultimate Frisbee for 2 hours with a bunch of the single adults and the Clegg family. I played for 2 hours without touching the Frisbee, I guess that’s what you get when you play with a bunch of guys who assume you don’t know what you’re doing even when you actually do. When we got back to housing meg and I built our own fire!! Yep it was awesome, and we make smores and everything. Nick, Dustin, Katie, Jon, Bryant, and Adam hung out with us for a bit until we put it out. And josh always said I could never make my own fire. I guess I proved him wrong.

work, move cashier, guy got mad for no recycle, watched volleyball ate ice cream, had dinner, went to ulimate and played for 2 hours without touching the Frisbee, me meg built our own fire had mallows hung out with nick dustin Katie adam jon bryant

7/2

cut off work early, ate one of TJ’s sourdough cinnamon muffins mmmm, ????

7/4

Today I worked in the kitchen ALL DAY. I was there from 9-5 and truth be told, I loved every second of it. Especially when it was one of the busiest days of the season. I pulled pork for probably 3 hours! Yeah, talk about a whole lot of pork! It was probably 2 pigs worth. And I made a bunch of wraps and salads. Then I went straight to church. I can always count on Sundays to allow me to call my friends and family because I know I will be at church in town. So I was able to talk to my mom and grandma. After church we always head straight to the corall for dinner. Don is awesome and makes sure to save food for us.

I went up to the fireworks at Stanley with Jessica, Britney, and Becca. While we were driving there I discovered something…. deers squat like dogs while they poop! Yeah it was way weird.

So when we get up to the park I run into Lucas and Trista so I went off with them to go find more of our redfish crew. It ended up being me, Lucas, Trista, Jon, Mike, Josh, Adam, Josh’s girlfriend, Perry, Wyatt, Shaylee, Matt, Alec. It was super fun! Lucas Adam, Josh, and I started singing different American songs, eventually we got all of Stanley to sing along with us. It was epic.

I went back to housing with Lucas and we hungout in the bunkhouse for a while then around the bonfire. I went to bed early. I know, super lame. But Jamie Lee Curtis was at redfish. I didn’t see her because I was in the kitchen all day but Chelsea had a conversation with her. I thought that was cool.

7/5

So before I went to bed the night before, Megan had not gotten home yet and I didn’t even know where she had went and usually I always get home way later than her. I was a little worried but not too much. When I awoke in the morning her truck was still gone. This is when I started panicking! I was so terrified that something horrible had happened to her. If she wasn’t at work then I was planning on going to Jeff Clegg and having him call in a search party. Luckily when I got to the front desk she was sitting there. I let her know how freaked out I had been and made her promise to leave a note before she leaves and never gets back!

So I worked all day. It was super busy. No big D though.

A little bit after I got home from work, we went to Stanley Lake for F-ing-H-E (FHE) where we had dutch oven food cooked in 7-up and played games at the lake. I went to bed early I am getting so lame at that. but I couldn’t sleep later at night so I stargazed by myself in the middle of the night.

7/6

Today was my day off! These are always days that need to be celebrated. It was a beautiful morning waking up at 10 instead of 7:30. Meg and I went into town to do laundry because it is about 2 dollars cheaper than the laundry mat at redfish. The laundry place is connected to the side of Papa Brunee’s (the pizza place) kind of an odd location if you ask me. anyways, Cowboy stopped by and said hi while we were there. We also had to run across the street to make an errand at the post office for Rachael. While we were waiting for our clothes to wash we went to the Stanley Museum. It was legitimately awesome. I always forget how cool museums are, especially the ones in small towns. They had an antique “bad blood sucking machine” that doctors used to use. All I can say is that I am definitely glad that technology has come a long way. All in all the museum was so fun to look around in, and it was free! You have to love free entertainment J while we were waiting for our clothes to dry I walked over to the library and bought myself A LIBRARY CARD! But for some reason I have become ADD when it comes to reading books. I used to be able to zip through a book every couple of days, now it is so hard to get into any. I checked out about 4 books and have yet to read past the first few chapters on any of them. Maybe one of these days I will finish one…..

Once our clothes were finished we changed into our bathing suits and headed to the lake to sunbathe! It felt marvelous! Aahhh I could have slept all on the beach but megan had a date and had to leave early and then it got chilly so I went and chilled by the lodge with Dustin, Reese, and Bryant. We all ended up going back to Reese and Kelley’s shack to play video games. I wasn’t that great so it didn’t keep me entertained for long. Instead I went to the lodge to get dessert. Unfortunately they were out of a lot of their famous desserts so I had Grandma’s Chocolate cake instead. It was quite scrumptious. Megan and I felt like it was a movie night so we went over to Kelley’s shack to borrow some movies (they have an insane movie stash). We watched Signs and The Dark Knight with all our roommates and Cowboy. It was a pretty great day.

7/8

I only worked from 9-2. We were over staffed and I was feeling like I was going to pass out for some reason so I offered to leave early. I spent the rest of my day trying to take a nap, then went to the lake to lay out with Megan. Ahhh it felt so good. But the sun was too hot for me to be able to sleep so here I am at 8:30 and dead tired still. But I did run into the Clements’ family, minus Hailey. That was a little sad that I didn’t get to see her but it was still a fun surprise to run into her family! Then we went to go get dinner. We were so excited because it was homemade pizza, but the second we got to the corall, the last slice was taken. It shattered my entire universe! So I had salad and cereal for dinner. Then I went and read on the tables by the Gazebo and Emily came and sat by me and we chatted for a bit. There’s nothing like relaxing by the gorgeous lake while the sun is setting to end a day. I went back to housing and now I am back in my bungalow hoping desperately that someone will make a fire tonight. We have not had a bonfire in FOREVER. Really depressing.

7/13

Today I was still sick. I was sick all day yesterday on my day off and it started Sunday night. Sunday was pretty bomb. I had the day off so I went to early morning church with Megan instead of going to the 5 o’clock one with my other roommates. After church meg had a meeting in town so I stayed In the car and talked to sarah for a good hour or so. It was so nice to finally talk to her again! J after that I went to the lodge where I ran into Travis McDaniel and Nick Berlin. That was so exciting! They had a gig at the lodge that night so they came to scope things out.

I was so exhausted so I went back to our bungalow took a shower, then tried to take a nap. After 5 minutes of laying down I heard a knocking at our door and then in pops my little brother! Surprise!! My family and Lisa Banks and her boys came up to Redfish! My mom wanted to watch Travis McDaniel sing at Redfish that night and I don’t blame her because he was AWESOME! Along with the Bodo Brothers! They were all so fantastic and I had an absolute blast listening to them for 5 hours haha. I also bought both of their CD’s….so exciting!

My family then left and I went back to my bunk where my roommates were watching the new Shrek movie. I sat and watched the rest of it that I didn’t finish the night before because I went to go hang out with Josh and Adam in the weight room again followed by watching an episode of Curb Appeal.

Anyways, after finishing Shrek I made my way up to the bunkhouse to hang out with whoever was chilling up there. At first it was just DJ Dustin and Perry. Then Reese and Sierra showed up and throughout the night Dishwasher Dustin, Yusa, Kelley, Trevor, Tony, and Luke came by. I pretty much just sat and ate delicious strawberry cheescake ice cream and listening to music while everyone played beer pong all night. Dishwasher Dustin and Luke owned everyone winning 7-0. I was impressed at least. There was actually I fire that night so I went to check it out for a bit but it was kind of lame. Just a few people there. So I went back up to the bunkhouse and chilled there till about 2ish.

The next day, my other day off, I was sick!! Probably from lack of sleep. So I slept a lot, went and layed out by the lake, then slept some more, then went back to the lodge where I ran into Josh getting off of work. So we hung out in the corral for a while and went to the general store so he could charge a 21 cent fireball to his tab haha. We went back to his bungalow and hung out some more until we decided to go to the boat box! I love that place and would totally go more often if I had a car. It was just me Josh and Adam. We listened to Alabama the whole way there, I love those boys. They are like my favorite older brothers I never had haha. I pretty much just chill with them in the weight room every other day while they work out. Like right this second., with Perry and DJ Dustin as well. As I am writing this. ANYWAYS. We get to the boat box and it was so sweet. Chilling in a nice hot tub on the side of a river at 11:30 at night under the stars. It was so sweet. We had some pretty nice intellectual conversations. We were there for about two hours and saw about 20 shooting stars. Gorgeous! Went home. Went to bed.

Woke up late, still sick. I was so delirious the first couple hours of work. I was getting made fun of so bad haha. I would walk into the kitchen and just stand there not quite knowing where I was or why I was there haha. It was horrible. Overall though, it was a way fun work day. Probably one of the first in a long time. Shaylee and I have grown closer and have a lot of fun together, especially when it was as slow as it was today. I made a total of 1 nacho and 2 burritos, pathetic. Shay and I pulled some more pork. So fun. We pretended we were performing surgery, we had to spice it up some way.

My first real days off

Tuesday June 22^nd

Yesterday was my day off and it.was.awesome.

I slept in, went to breakfast, came back and finally finished my book. It was a good book, sad, but good. Today’s goal: find another book!

After I finished my book, my roommate Rachel and I headed to the lake to go kayaking. It was a BEAUTIFUL day. On our way to the lake we ran into Dustin, it was his day off as well, so we invited him to come with us. We grabbed lunch then went to the docks to get our kayaks. We didn’t go all the way across the lake but we got pretty close.

Side note: For some reason I have become so fascinated with the wildlife here, especially the birds. Out on the lake there were two huge birds soaring above us, I just really wish I could tell what kind of birds they were. There are also so many different beautiful birds I always see flying around the lodge and our housing. I need to get a bird book or something J

Anyways… after kayaking I tried to find Josh and Adam because I reserved spots for us to go horseback riding, but I could not find them. So Dustin and Rachel went with me instead. I have missed being on a horse so much! It was a 1 ½ hour trail ride of the most breathtaking views. I never wanted the ride to stop. Let me just say that pictures do not do this place justice. It was a fun ride but the whole time I was just itching to run with the horse.

I totally forgot that over the past few years I have grown allergic to horses. Luckily I was still able to breathe after the ride but my eyes got swollen and puffy and red and my head was killing me. so I slept. And then somehow got myself out of bed to go on a hike up the Fish Hook trail with Stanley’s FHE group. It was so gorgeous. Especially at the end. Holy moly I can’t get enough of all the views around here. The trail left us at the edge of this huge field. It looked a lot like the field in the Twilight series but ten times better with the Sawtooths behind it, a bunch of deer roaming around, and a cute little river flowing through. Going on that hike made me want to go backpacking SO BAD.

After the hike I ended the amazing day with another great bonfire.

Today was my day off…again. It came as a surprise to me. I totally thought I worked this afternoon so I go out to the Z-bo and clocked in, only to look at the schedule and Tom had me off today as well. So I went out to the docks and was going to go kayaking again but they had a shuttle tour about to go out so I hopped in with them. Josh was our tour guide and it was a fun hour long tour around the lake. It was me and 3 older rich couples. One of the men gave me cookies and candy and was super nice and funny the whole time.

Then I went horseback riding again : ) just for an hour this time. It was me and two 14 year old girls. I talked with our guide the whole time. She is 19 as well and she told me that I can come over after their work sometime and go riding for real. The trail rides are fun and all but I would love to be able to go off riding and run through the mountains. So hopefully I will be able to take her up on her word and hang out with the horse corral crew.

Later I went out to Point View campground where there is a giant boulder. Matt took out all his rock climbing supplies and I went rock climbing out in the real life WILDERNESS!!! It was sooo cool and way fun. A little bit difficult though due to the fact that I had big honkin running shoes on, it made it hard to get my feet in the small crevices. But all in all it was a great experience and I can totally see myself doing it again.

They call me Brunie

Friday June 14, 2010

Is it seriously Friday already?!?! I totally thought it was Thursday. That is what happens up here. You never know what day it actually is, every day blends into the next.

Today was our first day open to the public! It was a lot of fun, not quite as intimidating as I thought it would be and it was pretty slow. Me and wyatt made the wraps, salads, and sandwiches. Lets just say I am pro at them now, as well as making nachos and wrapping burritos. Mmmm everything Is so delicious but way overpriced. Oh well, its Redfish and that’s just how they roll. We also put in a zip line so when perry or I take orders we take one copy and clip it onto the zip line and shoot it to the back to Chad for grilled orders and take the other copy and send it to Wyatt for fried orders. It’s a really fun tool although they always make fun of me when I do it because Mike made it too tall so Perry wont get close lined so I have to jump up and do it.

I got let off early so I headed to the kitchen to see if they needed any work done. I need more hours so I will work wherever they need help. Nick came in and yelled “hi Britni” but evidently TJ heard him say Brunie and thought that’s what my name is, so they now call me Brunie.

They have a tradition here, if it’s your birthday, you get thrown into the lake. Today was Sam “big bird’s” (because he’s super tall and has crazy hair) birthday. Let’s just say he wasn’t the only one who got thrown in, he took Jon in with him as well.

and P.S Emily just might be able to get me tickets to GARTH BROOKS IN SUN VALLEY.

my life would be complete

Here comes the sun...

Friday June 11th

Today was way chill. I rolled out of bed around 9:30, I didn't have to be to work until noon again. I just took my time getting ready, then headed to the lodge at 11 to snap some pictures and get some paper work done.

*Note to family (if anyone actually reads this): You get free boat rentals if you go out with me and a 20% discount at the restaurant and general store.

Then I headed to the zebo (gazebo) and pretty much did nothing for three hours. I swept, polished, and filled cups with toothpicks. Getting excited for it to actually open so I have something to do.

For lunch we had some delicious homemade pizza stuffed with veggies and chicken. Let me tell ya, Don knows how to make some mean grub. He is our employee chef, his son Kelly is the head chef in the kitchen. Dont let kelly's appearance decieve you because he looks like he could be my age, not old enough to be a head chef at a restaurant.

I ate lunch with some of the kitchen boys. They told me they were jealous of my job because I will get to look at hot girls all day. Hmmm yeah I don't think I will care much about the girls...

So I go back to housing to charge my laptop (it is still too cold for me to go and want to be playing outside) and I lay on my bed to write in my journal and end up falling asleep for two hours. Not cool.

So here I am. Sitting outside of the lodge and looking out to the most serene view and watching goodlooking guys run by every now and again.

Living the dream.

Please warm up weather. The wilderness is calling my name.

p.s I realized that I brought the wrong camera cord so I will not be able to download pictures. awesome.

"Livin the dream"

Thursday June 10^th

Yes that is what I am doing. Living the dream. It is fantastic. I cant get over how cool the people who I am working with are and how amazing the location is.

Today.It.Snowed. I think that is all I need to talk about on that subject.

Last night I went out to the bonfire and stayed out there for a good 2-3 hours. It was me and about twenty other guys and maybe 2 or 3 girls. The guys range from anywhere to 20-32 of age and around the same with the girls. Like I said before, there is such a variety with the employee population but it just makes everything that much more interesting and fun. We just sat around the fire listening to a bunch of sweet reggae music and a few people played their guitars. The stars are amazing.

Life is good.

Today I reported to work at about noonish after having lunch. The food here is delicious. I cant complain one bit. After lunch I followed my manager around and just did little stuff here and there. Evidently I will be working a lot with the food like cooking and prepping. I thought I would just be working the cash register but im excited that I will get to do way more than that. I also had to teach my manager how to measure brown sugar today while we were making the rub for our pulled pork. Then after I was done with prepping the pork I went to the Gazebo with a few other guys I will be working with and we got a tour of how it will be run this summer because they are changing it all up. It will be sweet.

Tonight my Gazebo manager (who’s name is Tom, or Tom the bomb) took the Gazebo crew out to pizza at Pappa Brunee’s for a bonding experience. It was me and 6 guys drinking beer. But it was still awesome. We had a taco pizza, it was…..interesting. never experienced lettuce and taco meat on my pizza before.

On Monday he is taking us down the river for some more bonding. One of our crew members is a part time river guide.

Tom’s rules of the gazebo

1. 1. When asked how you are doing, always reply with either ‘living the dream’ or ‘fantabulous’.

2. 2. Work hard, play harder

3. 3. Always wear a rad pair of sunglasses

4. 4. At the beginning of every shift, the song ‘I gotta feeling’ must be played and danced along to.

Yeah, he is pretty much the coolest. And today rocked.

First Day Of My Perfect Summer Job

Wednesday June 9^th 2010

Can I just say that I already have plans to come back next summer? Because I do, and I haven’t even been here for 24 hours yet.

When we first arrived, my mom and I sat in the restaurant in the lodge to wait for my manager to show me around. While I was waiting they gave me a menu and said the food was on the house….sweet! I figured some fries and herbal tea would hold me over until dinner. My manager Emily showed up a little while later and gave me a short tour.

The Gazebo (where I will be working- which I have come to find out is the most coveted job) is a lot larger then what I remembered. I am way excited to start working there tomorrow, even though it doesn’t open to the public until the 17^th. The Corral is an employee cabin where we eat and clock in and out or just chill. Then off to my housing. It’s a little over ¼ mile from the lodge. I live in what they call a bungalow. The bungalows are like really long and skinny cabins. There is a wall that separates the girls and guys and they are for the first year employees. The second years and older either stay in the bunkhouse, which is located on top of the laundry room and public showers and is on the same floor as our weight room, or they stay in “the Ritz” which is just a really big two story cabin.

Today I got settled into my top bunk ( where I can hardly even sit up straight and is absolutely terrifying to climb up and down). Our cabin is pretty cozy. It feels like the dorm life that I never got to experience in college. I love it. It’s quaint. A small bathroom, a little sink, 4 lockers, a bookshelf, a shoe shelf, electricity, a mini fridge, and a heater. This is how I like to campout for 3 months! Although I do feel quite shut off from the outside world. No car. No cell phone service. And very iffy internet. But who cares, I am living in paradise all summer long!!!!! Literally. The scenery is so surreal. For all of you who have experienced Redfish, you know what I am talking about. For those of you who haven’t….your missing out for sure.

So far, the few people I met today are awesome. I am way excited to meet the rest of the crew and get to know all of them.

As for the rest of my day, I took my bike out and explored the area. I went to my favorite beach spot on the opposite side of the lake from the lodge and just sat there and took in the incredible scenery I am surrounded by. It is simply breathtaking. And now I am so tired. Probably due to the fact that I got no sleep last night because I was so nervous. But the employees are having a bonfire tonight, only one of many they have every week. How cool!

I will get pictures up soon hopefully!