Goodbye June

I have been slacking lately in my blogging. Life has been so crazy in the summer! First we had Disneyland, then I had EFY, and then we partied with the Gittens until the left. Then there is also the fact that I am lazy and my computer won't let me put any pictures on. So hopefully I will post more soon.

At the moment, I am just awed in the fact that June is already gone and I am one month closer to being a high schooler!!!! Oh it's insane. So I will just do a little recap on what I haven't posted about and what has gone on in my life for the past little while.

• I won Language Arts Student of the Year. That means that out of all of the 9th grade students at my school, I was the best at Language Arts. I am so happy and still so overwhelmed!
• We had a great time with our cousins and family when they came out from Georgia! They were here for almost a month and we had so much fun! I miss you guys!!!
• I have loved keeping up with all of my school friends! These friendships really do last and I am so grateful for all of my friends! You guys are the bomb!
• Going to Lagoon has been a blast! We have been a couple of times this summer and it is very fun!
• EFY was such a great experience! I have loved every single minute of it and I can't wait to go again!
• I am very excited for our anual Fourth of July bash up in Oakley. That is a tradition that will hopefully last forever! It is fun to see the family and celebrate our country.

So that's a little bit of what is going on in my life right now! I will post more soon!

Thanksgiving

I am determined to get caught up! I just have to find the time to blog!

Our Thanksgiving turned out to be a great one! It all started when we decided to have a "mock Thanksgiving" with all the family on my mom's side. It was really fun and the food was great! My mom even decorated the table all fancy!

Then we headed up to St. George to spend our actual Thanksgiving with Grandma Nancy! She is such an amazing cook, so I was looking forward to Thanksgiving dinner!

We got to see Grandpa Joe and Uncle Randy while we stayed up here. It was quite the party!

Just chillin'

We got to see Grandpa Joe and Uncle Randy's new house, and the whole family came along! We had to get a picture, because we don't get to see each other that often.

So that was our Thanksgiving. It was a really good one and I had a really good time! Now I just can't wait until next year to celebrate our gratitude with family.

Disneyland!!!!!!!!!!

 In October we took a trip to Disneyland. It was very fun to get away for a while and spend some time as a family. It was a short and cute little trip over UEA, and I am so glad that we took the time to go!

After driving for two days, we finally ended up in sunny Cali. We couldn't waste any time and headed straight for the park. It was very cute and decorated all for Halloween! Day 1 was filled with rides like Teapots, Storybook Boats, Matterhorn, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (Whew a mouthful!), Indiana Jones. Buzz Lightyear, and many more! 

Ethan became our resident photographer. He was so cute carrying around the camera and trying to get a picture of everything!

Lauren's pulling out the guns! Everyone better watch out.

For Day 2 we hit California Adventure, a great park! We had tons of fun on Toy Story Mania (Dad won of course) and all the other rides there!

When I saw this window display, I just had to get a picture! For those of you who don't know, I am obsessed with the movie Tangled and everything to do with it!

We took the character quiz that matches your personality with a Disney character. Some of the results were really funny! Braiden was...

Aladdin!

Ethan was most like...

Lumiere! I never thought of my brother as a singing, dancing, and talking candle, but Disney knows what it's talking about!

Lauren was like...

Tink! Wait a minute. Lauren... quiet? They must have the wrong person! Just kidding. She is an amazing sister though. Love you sissy!

I (please ignore this picture of me) was a lot like...

Dot from A Bug's Life. Maybe that's why my nickname is Katiebug!

And Dad was matched with...

Ariel? Way to go Dad! You are most like a mermaid!

My dad really got Buzz. I think Ariel was Lauren's other one, but in my picture history it ended up right next to my dad. Good times!

We then headed back over to Disneyland where we rode the new Star Tours! It was really cool!

We also got scared at Haunted Mansion! I love Lauren's face here!

We were just getting obsessed with "Psych," the best TV show on the planet! We were inspired in these pictures!

The next day we started at California Adventure again to catch all the rides we missed the day before. We got there before the park open, so we had time to browse the shops, and I found the Tangled pin I had been looking for! I was very happy.

 

We headed straight to Tower of Terror, and we were very terrified!

There were these cool Disney characters someone drew with water on the ground! I couldn't resist taking a picture! They were really amazing!

Then we headed back over to Disneyland and hit Tom Sawyer's Island. This is like a Pirates/Tom Sawyer Island and we enjoyed both parts! As long as we don't fall off the bridge that is...

We got to see the Disney parade and I got to see the Tangled float! It was really cool to see the tower and Rapunzel! But where is Flynn? I want to see the smolder!

We also got to ride Big Thunder, Teacups, Star Tours, and others as we enjoyed spending time with each other in the happiest place on earth!

We then headed back over to California Adventure to catch World of Color. This was seriously one of the coolest things ever! I loved the show and enjoyed every minute. Sadly, Ethan's legs started to stop working at this point and so we ended our day without Dad and Ethan, but it was still very fun!

For our very last day at Disneyland, we decided to hit all the big rides again and enjoy our last couple hours of Disney. We did, and it was very fun!

We had a really good trip to Disneyland! It was really fun to just go as a family and enjoy the magical world of Disney! I can't wait to go again!