My 15th Birthday

Yup! I'm fifteen now! At three o clock on Wednesday afternoon of last week I was officially able to say that I am half way to thirty! My birthday was pretty much a normal day at first. I actually forgot about it, and kept being pleasantly surprised at my brothers, sisters and nephews ;) birthday texts. Mom put a status on Facebook about my birthday. Bless her heart! Ben and Lauren called me too! :) 

     In the evening Emily came and I opened my gifts. Mom said that pretty much every gift that she had planned on giving me already, I suddenly had a light bulb go off and asked for it. Oops! ;) 

     I felt quite grown up this year with the gifts I was given, but in a good way. My favorites were probably the purse, apron, Jamie Grace CD, and huge hoop earrings. 

My birthday pie! 

Jessica and Brant sent a box of goodies for me! :) 

pretty package!

dress apron from Jessica

Saturday, Sunday, Monday

On Saturday evening we had Abby Diffonzo and Jo and Joel Carter over for supper, games, and a bonfire! They all got here around 5, and we ate chilly, garlic bread, (with jelly on top of course!) and chocolate pudding for dessert. 

On Sunday my brother Josh came to our church to do a talk about his month long trip to China. He also came home after potluck, as did Abby, Emily, Daniel and Andria. My favorite part about Sunday was playing Dutch Blitz with Abby, Ruth, Andria, and Josh. (if it makes you feel better Lydia and Esther, I lost!) 

Abby, Ruth, Caroline, Andria, Josh, Me

On Monday we watched my niece and nephews, Caroline, Gabe and Jack.  It was pretty cute when we would here them chattering about something and laughing. It always makes me happy when little people have fun together when they are just by themselves. :) At dinner time we fed them chilly, that was left from our night with Abby.
     After dinner I played with the kids outside. I pushed Caroline and Gabe on the swings, and retrieved Jack from both the parking lot and the slide.
     The whole day went quite well considering how it could have gone with three kids all four and under with no naps the day before! :)

(#3) On My Trip To Wyoming...

     On my trip to Wyoming I saw lots of animals that you don't just see everyday in Iowa!  In South Dakota, or maybe it was Wyoming(?) we went to a place where you can feed peanuts to prairie dogs.  Some people who were leaving gave theirs to us, bless their hearts. You had to approach the little critters pretty carefully, or else they would dive back down the hole, although I was actually able to pet one! That was probably stupid of me, since I wasn't sure if I should or not, but I still have my hand, so it must be ok!  There was one who seemed to be on the old side that came waddling up to me!  He even grabbed a peanut from my hand.  I'm thinking that he must have been experienced considering how fat he was! 

This is one animal/reptile that I'm glad that I never did see! These signs were everywhere in the Badlands.  I was a little nervous to be actually camping there! But we slept in the RV, so I think we were pretty safe.

 This buffalo gave me quite the story to tell!  We were going on a nature drive in the RV, but besides a lot of deer we only saw this one lone buffalo. After awhile we decided to turn around, and when we drove by the buffalo again it was almost on the road. We drove by very slowly and it started to buck up onto its back legs! It did it over and over and then started to chase us!  Everyone was freaking out except for Thomas and I.  I was on the opposite side of the RV, but wouldn't it have been so cool to have been on the charging buffalo side! 
     Later, when we were horse back riding, Jenny was talking to one of the guides and he said that people sometimes leave with holes in their cars from buffalos ramming into them! Glad we weren't one of them!

We saw so many elk on this trip that it became boring to see them!  We stopped to take pictures of this one because there was a whole line of cars, and people with cameras, so we wondered if it was a moose or something really different. Nope! Just an elk! ;)

 We also went to a rodeo!  My very first one!  It was kind of nerve racking in some ways, since  I would just die if one of the guys was my brother or my dad or someone I knew.   It was amazing that some of those guys could stay on as long as they did! 

There was one animal that I'm very disappointed to say that I didn't see, and that would be a bear. I came close, but… its not the same. We were were hiking up a mountain when we saw a guy and a girl who looked like serious climbers! They had big ol' backpacks, hiking boots, poles, and they just plain looked serious! They said that they had been out since 1am (or maybe it was two, can't remember but it was ridiculous.) and they said that they were an hour behind, because there was a bear in there path!  I was hoping we would spot it, but sadly we didn't. :( When I called mom to talk for awhile, I told her about it, and she wasn't disappointed for me! I wonder why? ;) 

Bee Thankful

Mom and I have gotten into something called art journaling, which basically is using a blank sketch book and taking rubber stamps, paper, paint, gelatos, (chalky, but kind of  a paint) and anything really, to create something cool. We like to watch youtube videos to give us ideas. Since Mom and I prefer things neat and organized, we're often horrified at how some of them will slap a bunch of stuff on the page and really go to town and usually it looks awful, but yet they just keep going and it turns out amazing! Sometimes just the opposite happens, where they have something cool, and then splatter it with paint, or do something that ruins it.  Mom was just saying that with my page a true art journalist probably wouldn't stop with this, it would just be the beginning!  Personally, I like having things a little more on the simple side. 

      On Mother's Day Emily gave Mom a paper punch that has a circle, a little flower petal along with a big petal.  Mom had it sitting out since she was going to use it for a page she was doing, so I picked it up desperately looking for something that I could make into a bee. It worked! I actually made both the bees and the flowers from that same punch. It turned out  pretty cool, didn't it? 

Palisades Park

Yesterday Emily had the idea to go to the Palisades Park! We left at about 2:30 and got home at almost

6 p.m. We didn't do much hiking, mostly skipped rocks and just explored a chunk of land.  Josiah, Ruth and I saw shrimp too! When we told Mom, she couldn't believe it!  Ruth assured her that's what it really was! After all, that's what it said on the bag! ;) 

We also got to go to Anamosa and see fireworks! They were delayed due to the flooding that happened around the 4th of July. They were pretty good! A little scary though, because we were so close it looked like some of the big ones might touch us! Their was a boo boo in the middle, and a couple exploded on the ground! A huge gust of smoke came rolling towards us and swallowed us up! It was a little creepy! Afterwards we stood at the nearby gas-station to watch a policeman as he directed traffic.  After standing there for about fifteen minutes, we marveled over how easily entertained we are! :)

Emily and Poppy

Me, Emily, Ruth, Josiah

Emily and I skipping rocks

after exploring a little cave, and getting spooked by a huge spider, Josiah, Ruth and I plunked down on a bench to regain our sanity!