Christmas in Florida

Let me start by telling you how fun a 14 hour car ride with my parents and younger brother in a cramped mini-suv was NOT. There was little to no extra space and we were practically all over each other. We seemed to manage though and stopped more often and for longer periods of time that I personally would have liked. My dad kept mentioning something about how its hard to sit there and drive for 6 hours straight with just a short break. Ahhh it can't be that bad :) Our family down there is pretty small. There are a few cousins that don't live nearby anymore and my grandma and my mom's two siblings. Yeah it's nice to see them every now and again but it would be nicer to have people who aren't eligible for the senior discount to talk to once in a while. Javier mainly hung out with our cousin Brandon. He is the last remaining teen down there. They spent hours watching The Dark Knight and Jaws. Javi, Dad, Brandon, and Me at Aunt Cathy's house having leftover Christmas dinner. I saw some truck pulling some jet skis on a wagon next to us in the car and decided right then that I wanted to go. One afternoon Dad let me drive around Javi and Brandon. Obviously at seperate times are you kidding- they're huge!! It was a lot of fun. After we got out of the "no wake" zone there was a 3 mile stretch we could ride on as fast as we wanted. I gunned that thing. Javi was the first rider; we had an awesome time. He kept hollering at me how I needed to "stop slamming on the breaks." If you know anything about a jet ski- there are no breaks. Apparently I let go of the throttle too quickly. Whatever. At one point we jumped over a boat's wake so high our butts flew off the seats. Good thing I was holding on because thats all that kept us from flying off- Javi was airbourne. Speaking of flying off- Brandon and I totally fell in. It is easier to steer a jet ski when its going faster. That is easy to do when going straight but turning was a different story. I didn't push the throttle enough and Brandon was leaning too much at one turn and we both fell right into the water. (not good since Jaws had been on just that morning) I was just worried about the jet ski tipping over and having to pay to clear out the motor. Brandon started screaming for help which was totally unnecessary and grabbed onto the side of the jet ski. I quickly swam around the other side to hold it down while he threw himself back on. By then some rescue guy was there and made sure we got started back up ok. My $3 sunglasses stayed on my face just fine but my cousin's nice fishing hat was lost in the wreck. Ironic. Yeah, it was scary but it made the day even more memorable. One afternoon Dad drove Mom and I out to the Boardwalk. Its smaller than most and leads up to a large pier. It was nice... not much to do but look in stores tho. My cousin Joe came down with Summer and their son Chase. He is a cute but very... energetic little boy. He seemed to like me, for the most part. It was amazing to be able to go to the beach over Christmas. That would never happen in VA! It was so warm there- the weather was beautiful. The water was a little colder than we would have liked but I had no objection to laying out and sunning myself. Overall it was an ok trip. The drive makes it hard and the lack of cousins makes it difficult to be as fun as it could be.

Gingerbread House

Travis had the bright idea to make a Gingerbread house together. It would be a fun and memorable activity that we could do one evening. One would think that this would be a good idea... only if they didn't know our luck. Lets just say the whole experience was fun but quite a disaster. We had a heck of a time getting the icing to make the pieces of the house stick together. It was a mess right off the bat. Of course you have to taste some icing when making a gingerbread house and our craft was no exception. We got so into it we ended up having an icing fight. Travis, being the nice guy he was, went easy on me. I was wearing a new sweatshirt after all. He got the worst of it. Haha he ended up with icing on his elbows and in his hair. We looked back at our humble house just in time to notice the roof caving in. No, it was not just sliding down like it had done before it had actually broken in half!! We had a large predicament at this point. More icing just made it heavier and cave in further. I decided to get a glass cup and set it inside the house. It is now part of the structure and is very vital to the longevity of the house. The gingerbread kit came with two people cookies. Travis and I took this opportunity to decorate them as the other person. My cookie is Travis and is on the right. He's wearing his green SVU t-shirt and khaki (yes that's khaki) shorts. I was designed by Trav and am located on the left. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to his decorations... some like to call it abstract. We were pretty proud of our little creations and attempted to eat them. I'm pretty sure that the people who make those gingerbread kits don't honestly expect people to eat the cookies. They are disgusting, hard, stale, and not very tasty at all. Adding icing doesn't make much of a difference either. as if the gingerbread house fiasco wasn't enough we had to endure the treachery of consuming sweetned cardboard- not an activity I would reccomend to people I like. Although it was gross and messy not to mention ill-prepared (of course it was the manufacturer's fault that our roof caved in) making a gingerbreadhouse was fun. We had a good timeand made a memory or two. Will we try it again? I'll have to think about that one.

Christmas in Virginia

Pre- Christmas was pretty fun. Mom made a yummy casual dinner of sloppy joe's and macaroni and cheese. The whole family plus Travis came over to hang out with us last Sunday. We wanted to exchange a few gifts before Mom, Dad, Javi, and I went to Florida. Lindsay started a sibling gift exchange between us 4 kids a year or two ago. We rotate who we give to and get from each Christmas. It is pretty helpful considering we are all on a fairly limited budget. Mom hogging Soph. Sophia is getting so big and even cuter every day. This is one of her better pictures, in my opinion. Z says she has a problem with crying a lot lately... I don't mind. Frankly, I have not really noticed. I just think she is great. Josh was really good when Mom put the massive santa hat on the little guy. She told him he was being a helper elf and had him hand out the gifts to the various recipients. He didn't seem to mind at all. He got a maroon scarf with his name painted on it which Mom convinced him was a "Hokie Scarf." If you know anything about that family you'd know that that is the best way to get him to like anything. He's a very good little kid. My opinion might be a little bias but "I personally believe that" (this would be funny if you've seen the YouTube video of Miss South Carolina answering her question...) these two kids are the cutest ever. They might get a little competition when I have my own kids in the distant future but for now my niece and nephew are awesome. Pretty much top the charts on the adoreable scale- it might be because their mom is a babe! (!!!) It was a fun afternoon. We all came out with a gift or too and who would object to that?! These days are always too short but at least the Spiveys don't live too far away and Jae is really close too.

last night at the white house

Last night my mom took Travis, my friend Cari, and I to the big ole' Christmas tree right outside the White House. There were smaller trees decorated all around it that represented each state and the US territories. Travis and Cari got to have their picture by Hawaii and Utah respectively... I just got a picture in there whenever I felt like it. We didn't go for very long and as is usual in D.C. there were a lot of people. Cari enjoyed the homeless man playing Christmas music on his keyboard. She wanted a picture with him but Travis and I kindly reminded her that she "isn't in Utah anymore." It was a fun trip- really put us in the Christmas mood seeing all the lights and trees. At one point Cari and I put on reindeer ears for a picture. Travis, of course, was humiliated by this public display of humiliation. Frankly, I have totally gotten over that. I'm into having fun pictures to look back on. He totally missed out- wouldn't humor us and wear a Santa hat. I tell ya- the nerve :) All in all it was a fun little trip, something to do to get out of the house.

Travis' last day at SVU... this year

Today was Travis' last day at SVU for a while. He claims he is coming back, but after two years of being gone who knows. He and I had such a great time this semester. Not many people get to go to college with their best friend let alone their boyfriend. We have so many memories from that place even though we were just there a few months. I had a great time hanging out with him and supporting each other in our sporting events. We helped each other with homework (this was slightly one sided but I digress). Travis will be going on a mission soon. I am really proud of his decision and I am happy for him. He knows I will miss him though. We have been best friends for a long time, we've been a couple since we were 14. It is going to be hard to go without him but until he geos I plan to enjoy the time we have left. He will make a great missionary. Some of my friends came out and said goodbye to Trav today as we were leaving to come home for Christmas break. They have all have come to love him and they will all miss him too. SVU has been a great place for us this past semester. We have had lots of fun there; it won't be the same without Travis. Its sad he is moving on from us, for a little while, but I know that kid. He can't desert us forever. Hurry back Travis. It has been great to go to school with you. All of us at SVU are waiting :)

My first post

Welcome to my first blog post! I plan on updating as much as possible with whatever I feel is important. Granted you may not think what I think is important, is important... but we can work something out. I figure this will only be looked at by maybe two of my family members (this would be a shout out to my mom and sister) and its kind of just to pass my time. Oh I know, what college student has free time? Shouldn't I be studying, or cleaning, or reading, volunteering to read at the old folks home, or scrubbing the communal toilet with a toothbrush? Indeed all of these things sound very tempting but I'd rather plunk aimlessly here on my laptop kindly purchased by my father (well if you ask my parents the money all comes from same place unless you ask you're trying to ask one parent for money to go to the movie or out to dinner- then the other parent happens to be the one with all the funds. Go figure) Anyway, I think this will be a more productive and mature alternative to the ever popular facebook and myspace pages. Thanks for visiting. I'll have pictures and comments as often as I can- since we already decided that I have way too much time on my hands.