2011 Summer Bucket List

FINALLY!! Its almost summer.. time to pull out my sandals and put away my winter coat.  

Maybe not in the case of Idaho though, does anyone else find this weather absolutely ridiculous?

Scenario: I wake up and head to class. Sun is shining, don't even need a coat because 60 degrees seems warm compared to our 26 we have been having.. the wind for ONCE is nonexistent, I mean there is a slight breeze, but nothing to worry about.  I go my whole day cooped up in class, ready to finally be outside again to get some fresh air.  Walk out side......and........ it's snowing.  Welcome to Idaho. 

I can't wait to just be able to spend my whole days outside!! Which is why with all this down time stuck inside I would like to introduce my...

2011 SUMMER BUCKET LIST

1. Run everyday
2. Spend more time with my Grandma
3. Say my prayers every night
4. Eat healthy
5. Go on a road trip
6. Go to a zoo
7. Go to Lagoon at least twice!
8. Make it to Frightmares this year as well
9. Go to a concert
10. Eat dip and dots at least 4 times
11. Go to a beach
12. Read at least three books
13. See a firework show
14. Buy a pair of roller skates
15.  Go shopping somewhere other then online haha
16. Make a summer scrapbook
17. Ride in the tractor with my boy
18. Write in my journal
19. Fly a kite on a windy day
20. Have a slumber party with my good friend Whit
21. Dance in the rain
22. Watch all the Harry Potter movies in one day
23. Roll down a huge hill
24. Take LOTS of pictures
25.  Take my little brother to the pool and the park and to get ice cream and to Walmart to get toys (kudos to me)
26. Go stargazing
27. Pull an all nighter
28. Fall in love allll over again 
29. Help my mom plant her flowers
30.  Make a summer playlist
31. Send a letter to Tate and Ashley my little missionaries :), once a week
32. Make soda pop sicles
33. Color in a coloring book
34. Go hot tubbing
35. & BOATING LOTS
36. Do exciting things - to blog about
37.  Make a new friend
38. Be a more positive person
39. Try a new food
40. Eat a whole box of otter pops
41.  Listen to the birds chirp while I get ready in the mornings
42. Go to a playground and jump off a swing
43.  Learn how to cook 
44. Carve my name in a tree
45. Think about others 
46. Have a sleepover with my sister in my apartment 
47. Go camping
48. Lose 15 pounds!
49. Build a sand castle
50. Ride a horse
51. Get a new car!
52. Get me some frye sandals :)
53. Get a flip flop tan line
54. Visit my sissy in Oregon
55.  Run through the sprinklers
56. Play a boardgame
57. Write a poem
58. Be in two places at once
59. Get a kiss under water
60. Have the BE
61.  Run a half marathon
62. ST birthday ever
63. Bear my testimony 
64. Become a craft-a-holic
65. Show appreciation for those I care about
66.  Do p9X
67. Make chocolate covered strawberrys
68. Eat a snow cone with no flavor
69.  Layout by the pool
70. Make a wish on a shooting star  
71. Say I love you 1,018 times AT LEAST & mean it.

Not really sure why my colors got all messed up, but thats besides the point.. I am just a LITTLE excited for summer.. and its right around the corner! YEAY :)

I'll blog about whats been going on in my life, another time, right now I gotta get back to work! 
Xoxoxo.

Island Park!

Well... I am a little late on this post.. as always.

About 2 weeks ago, we (as Gavin's family let me tag along*) took a little vacation to Island Park! They do it every year and this go-around I was lucky enough to tag along!

We had so much fun. It was my first time being to Island Park since I can remember, besides just passing by to get to Yellowstone.

We woke up Friday morning, in hopes of leaving early.. but with the babies, chores, and all our little pit stops we got a little behind track! The drive there seemed like it took FOREVER.  Poor MacKenzie had to put up with my complaining and complaining, and well... complaining, "are we there yet? My butt hurts. I FEEL LIKE we've been driving forever" its a wonder she didn't just push me outta the car.. ha ha. We made Gavin sit in the back with the boys, which wasn't a total loss for him. He got to watch Spirit and whatever other movies Teager's decided to watch.

When we pulled into Island Park we were blown away by the mass amount of snow there was.  Literally there were FEETS (no better way to say it) of snow!  On the roofs of the cabins there was seriously like 10 feet of snow. Half the cabins we couldn't even see because they were snowed in, it was crazy. 
When we walked into our cabin (which was absolutely adorable might I add) we were all a bit worried that the roof would either:

This wasn't our cabin it was one across the street, but if you look close you can see where some of the snow fell off the front roof and onto the deck, and broke the deck, as well as the front window!

A: Cave in

or

B: The snow would avalanche on us and we would be smooshed.

But luckily we made it out of there alive, in the end.  The back door of the cabin (which in previous years they were able to get from the door to the snowmobiles) was snowed in. Literally, there was no getting out.

Crazy!

This really does no justice to the cabin, itself. Sorry

Our agenda went as followed:
Friday: Get to Island Park, unpack (in Ellie's case MOVE IN), and EAT! Gavin went out on a night ride.. not wanting to take his unexperienced girlfriend into the dark of the night in trees.. not quite sure why? Ha ha. The boys just relaxed, watched sports.. and us girls did a puzzle.

Saturday: Spent the day in West Yellowstone.  We went to see the wolves and bears. It was so fun watching Teague (and Gavin) get so excited about the animals.  We walked around and went into all the little shops.  Had lunch.  Gavin must have had some good breakfast that morning because he was in a good mood that day and he spoiled Kenzi and I with gorgeous rings from one of those little indian shops (one of a kind as the jeweler said) We got back to the cabin.. the boys and babies took there naps and us girls did what we do best.. CRAFTS :) we made headbands, necklaces. We had alot of fun.  We all have a bit of a different style but they all came together and we came up with a lot of cute stuff. Gavin and Kyle took me, Kenzi and Teague out on a little ride.  Gavin FINALLY let me drive and after him yelling at me enough to SLOW DOWN over this BUMP and that bump and STOP here and blah blah blah. I gave up and said, you can drive. Haha we then all did what we do best and... ate! Prime ribbb and funeral tatoes, yumm.
Sunday: Bundled up Teagers and ourselves up and went sledding. We had so much fun! It was kind of windy, but other then that the weather was perfect. Gavin and I took out his sleds and this time around I said I get my own.  Me trying to be the dare devil I am, following him through the trees and getting stuck and making him mad, just completed the entire day :) ha ha he is so good at snowmobiling and I just was begging him to teach me how to do tricks.... but neither of us have the patience with each other to ever do that.. we would probably end up beating each other up before it was all said and done ha ha maybe someday though!

Monday: Sadly we had to pack up and leave.  The whole trip we had our fingers crossed to see a moose.. and finally right when we were heading out.. we did! It was kind of far away, but it was better than nothing. We made one last stop on the way back.. and ate Olive Garden! It was the perfect end to a perfect trip.

Can't really see him, but the moose is there.. that lil black dot to the left ha ha

Then came reality.. school.. work.. and TONS of homework to catch up on, unfortunately! Now I can only hope that the Smith's can put up with me, so I can go with them again :)

THANKS GUYS! LOVE YOU ALL :) 

*PS:  Jerica we misssed you! We will remind baby Klay JUST how much you love him when he grows up

I was so sad, I forgot my camera for alot of the trip.. so I missed out on some good pictures! But..

Heres some more pictures that I managed to get:

Ellie and Gavin, sitting comfortably playing the Xbox.

Always making cute faces for pictures.

Soo close to walkin

SNOW!

This is what happens when Kenzi lets me watch Teague, I kept him away from the yellow at least ha ha

Snow angels

Oh Ellie..

Oh this crazy thing we call life..

This semester has been a real challenge for me! Being because I really have a sense of what I want to do with my career choice.  Starting college (ha I make it seem like it was SO long ago) I had kind of a sense of what I wanted to do..
A. Something short
B. Something I could make good money
C. Something I could have a family and not be just working mom thats never home, rather someone thats there for her family

I searched ALOT of options.. and as I have said in previous posts I decided on dental hygeine.  Many people told me that you don't have to know WHAT you want to do WHEN you go to college, which sure I guess has some truth.. if you want to be in college for your entire life.  Without knowing.. you really have no sense of direction. So I am glad I finally decided.. anyways back to being to this challege.. ha

The base of my major consists of science based program.  Therefore, classes like Chemistry, Biology etc. etc.. along with that I have to take statistics (luckily my last math class, thank goodness)

This semester I am taking stats, chem, english, sociology and an introduction to dental hygeine. LOVE all of them.  Not going to lie though at first it kicked my butt. I wasn't used to having to actually put forth an effort in school, it usually came to me...

Anyways, enough of me blabbing on. I will get to my point of this whole post! Haha.

In one of my classes a professor read us a quote that really stuck out to me..

"We learn wisdom from failure much more than success. We often discover what we will do, by finding out what we will not do."



When my professor read that, it really stuck out to me.  I have been having a really hard time lately with school being so hard.  And the people that I care about not being around me everyday to help boost me physically and emotionally. 

Alot of people say that college is the time to get out and meet people, but really to me.. its been much more then that.  It truly has been such an experience more in meeting my true self..

I have come such a long long way from a person I used to think I was.  I really have been beating myself up about it to.. thinking that people will never change there views of me, or I will never really be forgivin.  But when my professor read that, I really realized that its me that hasn't forgiven myself!

I learned so much from my past, and thanks to it (not saying I am pleased about it) I have learned so much..

I am a much stronger person, thanks to this crazy adventure we call life!  I am really trying to work on being a much more positive person this year, and little things like that always help!

 

Hope all is well with everyone, xoxooxo.

 

 

..christmas.. a little late ha ha

Ha ha just CAN'T get over Christmas I just miss it too much.. ha ha just kidding. BUT I will finally take the time to post my presents that I dearly SLAVED my life away on ;)

Better late then never right? ha ha

 That was a scrapbook I put together for Braelynn :)

 Made this for my Grandma Seedall, just a collage of poict

 This for Kenzi-Lou :)

 Grandma Dianne!

 Lisa :)

 Angelicious

 Ellllllllllllllie!

 Juuurica!

Gavin Andrew

 Kenny !

 MOM

 DADDY

 And after one HUGE mess, and lots of time..

I ended up with a trunk full of gifts, and tons of smiling faces which I couldn't have been more greatful for!

Where are you Christmas?

HOLIDAYS COME BACK, PLEASE! 

Oh how I miss you! I love Christmas..not because I get spoiled or because I get to be off of school and get a short break from work.. I love it because I get to spend time with the people that bring joy to my life and make new memories that I won't forget

I had so much fun during Christmas. Spent most of the time with Gavin's family which never brings a dull moment! There such a fun family. I spent the 2 nights before Christmas getting all my gifts for everyone ready, because I am a procrastinator and wait til the very last minute so that "I have something to do when I am bored" Yea get real Kourt. Wrapping and packing my stuff.. not so fun at ALL. I had to go to walmart for wrapping paper and a few last minute gifts, which was a MAD HOUSE. Reminder for next year, do not attempt going to that store during the holidays.. what should have took 15 minutes, rounded out to be 20 times that..yuck
Christmas eve I worked til 4, helping out the estimated 17 TOTAL customers all day (which is very slow for those of you that don't know) so my day was spent complaining to everyone, and anyone who would talk to me about how BORED I was, calling  my boss every hour BEGGING to leave, and counting down the seconds til I could leave.. I swear the day couldn't have gone by any slower, I probably called Gavin 45 times just to say hey, I am so bored what are you doing. "Working Kourt" oh okay i guess ill let you go i love you bye.. ten minutes later heyy babe what are you doing .. im really bored STILL ha ha finally on about the 27th call he finally said OH MY HECK Kourt I gotta go really I am feeding cows, so i gave up ha ha and started to call anyone i could think of that would talk to me, but then i realized i had nothing to say, so I began shopping online ha ha, best thing to do at work, if i was rich! I find myself always just adding things to my shopping cart, but never getting to buy it all.. such a let down ha ha FINALLY the clock hit 4 and i was out of there, car ready to go, trunk full of gifts for everyone, literally.

 Kept myself REAL busy!

I drove my happy self to good ol' Acequia, and had an awesome dinner of prime rib and crab, Smith family tradition.. and oh my was it good. ha ha my fav part of course being the butter that i got to dip my crab as well as everything else on my plate in ha ha don't worry I payed for it later when my tummy was not so happy with me

Christmas day I woke up at my parents house to Jake at 5:30 in the morning (might i add) saying...

SISSY SANTA CAME GET UP!!

me of course being the sweet sweet sister i am got up and played with his toys that santa had got him..

 Even though he didn't play very nicely..

*****

ha ha everyone else in that house being lazy and sleeping til 9 and going back to bed right after they opened there presents, (nick and rj ha ha) it is so fun having little kids around to bring back the magic of Christmas. 

 Rj really needs to shave his mullet ha ha

 Apparently Nick wasn't feeling "fly" as he would say.. wouldn't take one picture with me ha

Every since my parents got divorced, my dad has put up his own Christmas tree every year with his own stuff... all the hallmark baseball ornaments, with a hat on top, mits throughout and bats on the bottom, so creative

 

Jake wrote a note to santa and left him cookies and milk, as well as oatmeal for the reindeer! 

*****

This year I just kinda asked my family for money and an I pod touch from Gavin which I defiantly got spoiled with all of the above! We opened gifts and after all that we had worked up an appetite so Angie made us a gourmet  breakfast of...

 Carls Jr. ha ha, as you can see Nick doing what he does best :)

*****

I went over to my grandmas after that, where my mom and Kennedy were! I gave them all there gifts and I opened mine from them.

 

 Us girls and our beautiful grandma!

 Shes not my baby sis anymore :(

 SPOILED, I know :)

 My mother likes to go overboard... and wrap ALL my stocking stuff too.. shes cRazY..

I love my moms presents there the best. She always gets something that I ask for and always throws in little stuff that no one would think of, but always come in handy.  Like ink cartridges for my printer which are super expensive, but I never would have thought of asking for.. DVD player blow dryer, just things that can always come in handy someday! Shes awesome.

*****

I took Braelynn and her family (my adopted family) there gifts, and gave them all a good laugh of course, ha ha they always love when I come over because I am such a spaz and say the darnedest things.

 My adopted mother Chimene 

MY mom and dad! (not Braes ha ha)

 

Typical Kourt and Brae moment, me being right, like ALWAYS, and her arguing.

 But after its all said and done.. were pretty much sisters and couldn't live without each other!

 *********

I went and had lunch at my Aunts and made Gavin come along with me, since he never has met my mom or anyone in her family for that matter. They always make fun of me and tell me that I made him up and he isnt a real person but I sure proved them wrong.

 Me and my beautiful cousin, Ash, and sissy Kennedy!

Couldn't live without this boy :) FINALLY got a picture.. pretty sure he was saying "im so mad right now, you set this one up ha ha not fair"

We went back out to Gavs after that and just hung out with his family the rest of the night which was fun! I love playing with his little nieces and nephews and making fun of prego Jerica falling on the ice, ha hahahah (love you jer)

 MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Monday: Me Kennedy and Gavin attempted to go snowmobiling, key word, ATTEMPTED. Dorko didn't check the weather ahead of time and well, once we got up there, got unloaded and headed to the top of the hill, we had to come back down, load up and go back home cuz the snow was too miserable. The whole way up he just kept saying your so lucky to go with me, i am KNOWN in this town for snowmobiling blah blahh BLAH the whole way down he just kept saying, why does it have to be like this i just wanted to have a fun day why does it have to snow. hahah welcome Idaho babe that's what happens.

 

He loves taking pictures :)

TAKE A PICTURE WITH ME NOW.. no i am playing with your brother MOVE!We love each other :) cant you tell.

 After begging FIFTY times I finally got him to take a picture.. and this is what he pulls ha ha typical Gavin for ya!

***

I couldn't have asked for a better Christmas and it went by WAY to fast! I am so spoiled in every single way! I have the most amazing people in my life and am so so blessed! Thank you! Love you all, xoxoxo!


*I'll post pictures of the presents I slaved away on later.. I just figured I would get this posted before I got busy and it got TOO outdated!