Quick Weekend Jaunt to Utah

This first weekend in August was a special one indeed. One of my good friends got married. Brett had an inspection on base and so there was no way he would be able to go with me. I really felt like I needed to be there but was not about to make the trip by myself [I get super bad headaches when I drive for too long without a break]  so I talked my mom into the whole thing- sort of bribing her with the fact that my brother would be arriving home from Europe the day before we went down. Needless to say, that worked like a charm!

On Saturday morning I sent Brett off to Drill weekend and packed up the car. I got my mom in the car and we went on a little mother-daughter trip! So fun!

It was great to see friends and it was great to be there to support one of my life long friends on one of the biggest days in his life that has been a long time coming. 

I must say it really made me stop and contemplate how lucky I was to be able to have such wonderful friends throughout my teenage years. They were such good examples and had such good values and have all continued to encourage me and motivate me to constantly be better. It is such a constant blessing in my life and the memories are those that I will always cherish and be grateful that they were mine for the rest of my life. 

My mom and I went to my friends wedding and then got to go and see my brother. We went to the wedding dinner together and I got more time to mingle and chat with my friends. :) yay Then... We got to go to IKEA!! Basically my favorite place ever. The end. Yay! It is always so so much fun. I love it. 

We spent the night with my sweet cousin Sarah and her fantastic family. They are basically awesome. It was soo good to get to see my family especially my bother and to get to see a slide show and to hear all about his Europe adventures. 

I am so grateful for a mother who will drop everything to help me and support me in what I feel like I need to do (even if she secretly does have her own motivation). She is fantastic and I love that she finds such simple joy in spending time the the ones that she loves the most. She has taught me so many things over the years and that is one of the biggest. How to love and to share the love we have with those around us. I am so grateful for the chance we had to spend time together, to talk, laugh, relive her own wedding memories ( this was her first time back to the Jordan River temple since she was sealed there to my dad almost 27 years ago), and come closer together. It was so fun! Love you mom! -- wish I had this picture, but Mom never put in on Photo Stream... fail.

Oh- and congratulations Gavin! So happy we could be there for your special day and for the chance you have me to spend such an awesome weekend with my mom!

Camera is alive!!

My camera has arrived! So excited!! It has been quite the ordeal and I have been so on edge and stressed out.

When I was doing the photoshoot for my friends my camera was acting up and I was so frustrated. Then just a week or so later when we went out to the BSU Summer Classic for Brett's birthday it was still acting crazy and I was so frustrated! Then- in the middle of the game it just quit working. The end. The shutter would just not complete the capture. It would stop halfway through. Needless to say I was SOOO frustrated. I kept getting this Err 30 message. 

I looked it up online, I tried all the little tricks, I called Cannon am their rep talked me through all of his tricks. Nothing worked. Nothing. I was so sad and disappointed. 

So- I had to do the hardest thing ever. I had to ship my camera all the way to VA, normally it would just be to Cali but because it was the shutter it had to go to their specialty center. Oh well normally- except it is over 100 outside and I am terrified to send anything in the mail (aka I have zero control and I have a friend who works the loading docks for UPS so I know what really goes on down there... Which DOESN'T help my anxiety! )

Needless to say- I stressed out for the two and half days to took to get there, the two more days it took them the confirm receipt of my shipment, another four or so days to hear if they would actually honor the warranty, and then another three excruciating days when they sent it back to me (and meanwhile and UPS cargo plane crashed in the Midwest). I was nervous, panicking, checking my tracking number like four times a day. Then finally- it came! It was in one piece. It was even packaged in the original box that I sent it in. I was so happy! It works wonderful and although they had to completely reset the entire camera  I now have to go through and rework all of my setting it is so worth it to have it back safe and in one piece! 

And... I have already needed it. We just added the newest little member of our family and it is all just so dang exciting! :)