A day on a paddle board and bicycle

What an awesome day! Probably one of the best this summer! On Tuesday, I went to Dana Point with Sam Moreno, Nathan Beck, his wife, and their grandma. We started out the day on paddle boards, which are actually easier than they look and tons of fun. You stand up on an oversized surfboard and row with a big paddle. After I got used to the balancing, it was no problem. Sam fell off his board about 20 minutes in haha. It was so funny; I can't help but laugh every time I think about it. The funny thing was that he turned around to look at me and then just kinda fell to his knees and rolled off into the water. Very graceful! Before we returned the boards, we both decided to jump in. The water felt amazing! After our paddle board adventure, we drove up to Newport Beach where we rented bikes and rode to Huntington and ate lunch by the pier. Their grandma wore a bright orange vest when riding her bike, which made her look somewhat like a construction worker haha. We ate at a place called Duke's and apparently grandma knew the owner. Oh and she also knows my mom's side of the family because they all grew up in Riverside: funny story. Anyway, we rode to an ice cream place where we all got soft serve ice cream cones. Almost all of Sam's ice cream fell to the ground within three minutes of buying it! Sad day! We rode back to the bike shop in Newport where we realized we lost the yellow parking pass that we apparently "needed" to return the bikes. Nathan tried explaining the situation to the guy in the bike shop, but it was his grandma that set everything straight! Once we got everything worked out, Nathan, Ava, and grandma took their car home and Sam and I searched Orange County for the Ortega Highway to avoid traffic on the 91. It probably would have been faster to just take the 91 since nobody seemed to know where the Ortega was haha. We finally were headed in the right direction on the 5 but I guess we missed the exit for the Orgeta so we just took the 76. It was a fun ride though. I am so glad I got to go on this trip! I learned a few new Samoan words too lol. Some of them aren't very nice...I guess that's just how it goes hahaha.

Stopping for a break in Huntington

Nathan looked funny with his hat and sunscreen nose

Aww, poor Sam!

Orange Country to Studebaker!

Last Tuesday, Corinne, Brandi, Rebekah and I hopped in Coco's buzz box and headed to Orange County. The first stop: Yorba Linda for Corinne's horn lesson. This was probably the least exciting part of our journey. Next stop: Newport Beach Temple! Upon arrival, we realized that the temple was closed for construction. We still had a great time eating lunch on the temple grounds and taking pictures. Then we drove to Long Beach where Corinne picked up her new french horn case. I have never seen a girl so excited about a case in my entire life! haha. She was just thrilled! We went to a gas station to change into our swim suits and there was this strange man who was talking to us in line for the bathrooms. He reminded me of Kevin from the Office! Seriously, this could be Kevin's brother or something haha. He was telling us how he has been to Lake Elsinore and he would catch lizards and their tails would fall off. Interesting. Next stop: the beach! Well, sort of. We drove around Long Beach trying to find a nice sandy beach with waves. Our search was unsuccessful. It was just a massive harbor. So we just found a sandy area and chilled out there. It was a sad excuse for a beach lol. As Brandi said, "this isn't a beach, its a place of sand and water!" We decided to leave after about an hour or two in the windy hell of all beaches. We pulled into a sketchy looking gas station and Brandi and Bekah went in and asked the guy at the cash register how to get to the 55 freeway. Apparently he had a very thick Indian accent and told them to get on "Stew Baker" hahaha. We were laughing forever because we realized the actual street was "Studebaker" lol. I had a great time with wonderful friends!

"BYU is going to have a pink hair rebellion on their hands this year" -Corinne

I guess you could call it the sisterhood of the traveling pink hair streaks...But yes, I now have a strip of pink hair. I've been thinking that it would be fun if the dhfbff's and I all dyed our hair this summer so on Monday we bought some pink hair dye and each got a streak! It isn't really that noticeable, but i think it is satisfying to know that we all have it. After we got our hair done, we did Corinne's dogs. Seamus has a pink happy face on his back and Mayzey has a four leaf clover on her back left thigh. We even convinced Corinne's mom to get a streak! haha. We took the leftover hair dye outside to find cats so we could get them too. Probably not the best idea haha. But not to worry, we couldn't catch any cats. It was a really fun night! I am so glad that Brandi and Alyssa are finally home from BYU-I. It is nice to have all the DHFBFF's together again! :)

Christine and Brandi plus seven

Last weekend Brandi and I had the chance to babysit seven kids while their parents were out of town on a cruise. It was a little crazy at times, but tons of fun too! We watched Logan and Thor Stucki along with their five cousins Sydney, Lexy, Rylie, Reagan, and Ryder. The kids spent the first few days of the week at their grandparents house so Brandi and I watched them Thursday, Friday and part of Saturday. A few fun activities we did:

Making maracas out of plastic cups, rice, and duct tape.
















Making Brandi's "Special treat" which was like a homemade pop tart filled with Nutella.
















Like the new look? Haha. Brandi and I tried on some funny wigs and took pictures.

Potatoes please!

I had forgotten how much fun I have with my old friends from my high school newspaper class! What a great group of people. We all came together my senior year during our 5th period. Brandi, Alyssa, Maddy Kozich and myself were seniors. Travis Tan and Mandy Lomnicky were juniors. And Many Speed was the little freshman. I am so glad we still hang out and can still find news things to laugh about. Its kind of tradition to make funeral potatoes at someone's house. So last Tuesday, everyone except Mandy Lomnicky (out of town) came over to my house to do the same. Alyssa came late because of work. We ended up going out to dinner at Alberto's, acting like middle schoolers whose parents had given them a night out alone haha. Sometimes its liberating to act immature. We had a blast though. After our Mexican feast, we went to Stater Bros to buy the ingredients for the funeral potatoes, nicknamed "Mormon potatoes." We stood in the middle of the magazine isle for probably a half hour just laughing and talking. Then we went back to my house and made the potatoes and watched New Moon and made fun of it, also tradition. This time we focused on the awkwardly tense kisses between Bella and Edward and also compared Jacob's climb into Bella's room to Mandy's boyfriend doing the same with a ladder. When the potatoes were done, we ate and laughed until everyone went home. It was a very fun night! I definitely will miss these guys when I go back up to BYU.


A few noteworthy quotes of the night:
"Brandi, where's all the avocado sauce?"
-Me to Brandi at Alberto's. Everyone thought it was funny I said that instead of guacamole
"She learned it in her grocery shopping class"
-Me to Travis regarding Brandi's knowledge of measuring units for the sour cream
"With all those sports and all those grades, she can't even buy herself some f**king peppers!"
-Maddy to Mandy. She only had 37 cents to buy her green onion with
"Damn look at those good quality baskets. I wove them yesterday."
-Maddy
"Christine has the best refrigerator water. AquafreakingFina!"
-Maddy
"What a marshmallow"
-Jacob Black. haha.