Alexys

So every day (well... 4 days a week) I watch the daughter of our school's athletic trainer, Alexys. It is pretty fun. We walk the park pretty often- meaning I walk to the park and carry her most of the way. This 2 1/2 year old is NOT light let me tell you. Especially when she is tired after playing and is serious dead weight. Good thing I discovered this wonderful invention called a stroller. It is a marvelous thing... holds all the snacks I used to have to jam in my pockets and saves my arm muscles from getting a serious work-out just by carrying this kid. Since I don't have access to a TV going to their house gives me the chance to catch up on some shows... yes Curious George and Arthur. Sigh. It's totally ok because those shows don't have commercials so it makes it nearly impossible to peel the little girl from in front of the screen... this is problematic when considering she is not quite totally potty trained and takes the liberty to stare at me with a horrified look on her face while the dark spot on her legs quickly grows and begins to dampen her socks. That has to be my favorite part. Nah- I really do like hanging out with her. She's a really sweet little girl... sometimes it just gets boring trying to entertain her all the time. So, don't worry I'm not getting any ideas quite yet. Not trying to have to rub cocoa butter all over my massive stomach at 19 years old. shoots.

First Track Meet

Today SVU had the first track meet of the spring season. It was hosted by Roanoke College, a little less than an hour away from our school. While we were sitting around waiting for our events we nearly died of hypothermia. It was so cold and windy. After a super long time it was finally time for discus. Since this is college it is measured in meters which is extra confusing. I had one decent throw- my second one. It put me at first place for a while until one girl from the next flight beat me by the skin of her teeth. I didn't improve any in finals but our 1st place friend did. She beat me fair and square by a couple feet. It's ok- I've only had one discus practice since High School States in May- and it was Wednesday. Shot-- oh the shot put. I went to weigh mine in, I only had an indoor one since our storage room was locked and nobody had a key, and they were slightly skeptical of me. After reviewing the rule book the officials concluded that it did not specify that i could NOT throw an indoor shot so they said I could. Well it didn't weigh in. Apparently I have been throwing a shot that is 1/2 a pound too lite. So there I was with big expectations for myself- proud of my iimporvement and ready to see if all my hard work had paid off but it was for nothing. I had to borrow another team's shot. It didn't feel THAT much heavier but it didn't go as far as my lighter shot had. I threw 32 feet and some inches (I was hoping for at least 35) and made it into finals. I didn't imporve any there so I walked away slightly discouraged and a little sunburned on my cheeks. It just shows me that I have a lot of room for imporvement. It's alright- first college meet- one 2nd place medal and a mark that qualified for finals... could be worse ;)

Time to Catch up--- SPRING BREAK!!

Josh and Sophia in the wheelbarrow Happy Soph take 1 take 2 take 3 I have a strange brother. whoot whoot riding in style- FLORIDA My birthday dinner Hot mamasita So my mom and sister (the only people who look at this thing) think that I should update more frequently. Frankly, I don't do all that much besides sleep (too little), eat (too much), work out and work but I dug pretty deep and realized I had some pictures from Spring Break last week. Jae, Pierina, Lindsay, Kris, Josh and Sophie all came over on Saturday. Linz and Kris went out for a while and did their thing and my mom and I got to watch Josh and Soph. We had fun. We played outside and went on a walk in the sweltering heat. Javi had the idea to put the kids in a wheelbarrow and run up and down the road in it. Sophie was not too amused but Josh loved it. It was a fun day. I always like when w can all get together like that. Sunday we had a "day off" so we hopped in the car and started driving. Dad wanted to go to some new harbor in DC but there wasn't much to see there. We deove around a while, stopped at my mom's old house (and talked to the owner) and ended up at some random place. Javi was certain it looked "just like a Jacki Chan movie set!!" so he wanted his picture taken. I could be wrong but I don't think he looks much like Mr. Chan. On monday my mom and I went to Florida to see my Grandma. We got up way late and had to rush out the door with no makeup on and only had time to throw on some clothes. We made it to the airport in record time and fixed up our scraggly looking selves in the bathroom. Mom rented a convertible and I got to drive it a lot. It was really cool! My birthday was on tuesday so grandma took us out to Red Lobster. I got my special- Ultimate Feast. It was a good week and I was sad to see it come to a close. Now I am back at school sitting here under a pile of books and papers. All I gotta say is- "I gotta get outta this place... if its the last thing I ever doooooo" I'll be graduating in record time here people.

The Final Day

Travis came down on Saturday to spend our very last day together before he leaves. We did a lot of fun things and mostly just enjoyed each other's company. He came really early (early for a college student is 9 am) and surprised me with a bear from Build-A-Bear and Godiva chocolates. He also brought me his iPod that I get to "take care of" until he gets back. We first went to VMI's indoor track so I could show him where I practice shot. From there we decided to head to Roanoke to see if there was anything fun to do there. We at at Carrabba's Italian Grill (and made most of our wedding plans- don't worry people this is totally legit) and then walked through the mall for a bit before deciding to get Dippin' Dots. We decided to come back to BV, we went to Wal-Mart and got the materials to make smoothies. We stopped at Sweet Things and gor ourselves the best ice cream ever. By then we were ice creamed out and didn't even feel like making smoothies anymore. We said our sad goodbyes and he was off. I won't see him again for two years and I already miss him a lot. I am really glad he could come down and see me one more time. He is the best!!!

Missionary Farewell

My mom hosted the Missionary Farewell for Travis. It was nice. There was a lot of food and a lot of people came to support Trav in going on a mission. It seems weird that the time has really come for him to go. I just cannot wait for him to get back!! I know he will be a great missionary. I have seen him grow spiritually even in the past few weeks. Of course I will miss him but if he has to be gone, a mission is the best place for him. Good luck in Salt Lake Travis!

Snowboarding at Liberty

My family has started up a tradition, I guess, of going snowboarding/skiing ever since Javi and I got snowboards for Christmas. Travis came with us to Liberty Mountain in Pennsylvania and we had a great time. Mom likes to ski and the rest of us have taken to boarding. It was hilarious to watch Trav the first time or two down the mountain but he caught on pretty quick. On my very last run down the mountain I lost my camera. I was devastated and went back up the lift to the top and began to franticly search for it. I honestly thought I would find it sitting at the top where Javi and I had latched our boards on. It wasn't there. after some tears and filling out a "lost camera" form at the Customer Service desk and left the resort defeated. Luckly, later that night I got a message on my phone that someone had turned in my camera right after we'd left. Travis drove me all the way back up there on Sunday to get it. When we first showed up the lady could not find it in the storage room and began pressing me to see if "someone in my party had already picked it up." No, obviously nobody had and I was not going to leave there without my beloved camera. Eventually she found it and I took it home, safe and sound. I am really grateful to the kind soul who turned it in and that I get to have the pictures to match the memories of that fun day.

Sightseeing the great outdoors

Travis came down to visit again two weekends ago. It is always so much fun. Everyone at school likes Trav and are just as excited as I am to see him. After all the hellos to his buddies in the weight room we got ready and went to the Institute building for the potato bar for dinner. It was pretty cool. The selection of music to play always brings back the stake dances… age 14 and thinking the titanic song is the BEST song to slow dance to. And the cha-cha slide was a staple in the evening’s activities. Anyway, after that Travis, me, Kylie, Abby, Folosa, and his friend Mike I think…) all loaded into Travis’s suburban and we huffed it all the way to Roanoke. On the way there we got out of the car and attempted to have our picture taken by the 143 exit. Not the safest thing we have done but definitely memorable. Anyone who knows up knows that 143 is kind of important to us. Once we got to the theatre in Roanoke I convinced the guys to watch “He’s Just Not That Into You.” It was lame but we had fun. We stopped at IHOP from there and got ourselves something to eat. By then it was late and we all fell asleep (except Travis) in the car on the way home. Saturday morning Trav took me to Ruby Tuesday’s and we started our fun day of random sightseeing. We started with “Foam Henge.” No I am not joking. Some deranged person designed a foam structure to be a replica of the real Stone Henge. It was super muddy walking up there but well worth it. It was fun but a once in a lifetime thing. Who honestly has the time to build a massive structure out of foam? After scraping mud off of our shoes and nearly having to push the suburban out of a mud puddle we make our way down the road to the “Natural Bridge.” It was formed by some river rushing through or something natural like that (duh). We weren’t allowed to walk under it because there were occasional falling icicles so we got the children’s rate. Travis and I could not figure out why they charged people to look at a piece of nature but they did. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed the walk to the bridge. From there we made our way over to a creek by the school. It was absolutely freezing but we stuck our feet in and cleaned off our shoes. It was a lot of fun. We ran over to "frank's for the Memories to get awesome smoothies. Travis had never been there and I wanted to make sure he had the experience before he left. We had our smoothies at the girls basketball game (they pummeled the other team so badly) and ate a little but at the new on-campus cafe, Jonzzey's. Before we knew it it was time for Travis to go home. As always we took some great pictures, did some awesome things, and made a bunch of memories. We always joke that “we are such fun people, other people must feel bad they can’t be as fun as us.”

Here are a few videos from the weekend:

at Natural Bridge, at the Creek, and at IHOP