the smells of summer.

You know, fire-pits are awesome. Unless there's wind and it blows the smoke everywhere.

Not only did I continue to smell smoke in my hair while I showered (and washed my hair twice!), but it's permeating my room.

Lessons learned:

1. My window wells face the backyard. Fire pit is in backyard. Never leave windows open again.

2. Two different kinds of perfume don't mix. Ever. And never spray 5 sprays of each in bedroom. Results will be in a pounding headache. I don't think I'll be able to sleep in here tonight...

Curse you smoke.

But I still love you, summer.

I'm terrible.

I know, I know. I haven't blogged in over a week. BUT, I do have a good reason!

My favorite cousins in the entire world are in town! Minus one, who is off adventuring in the high mountain terrain of Colorado bringing people to our faith. At least the other one, who recently returned from his two-year excursion to the exotic country of Guatemala is here. He's my new buddy now.

Needless to say, we've been pretty busy. Especially late at night, which is when I find time to blog. We play games too much, that's all.

They arrived Friday while I was at work, and surprised me when I walked in the door.

Saturday consisted of Park City, the Alpine Slide, and some wicked sweet deals at Banana Republic. And we played badminton! We had a total of about 8 birdies. Needless to say, 3 ended up on the roof and 4 others were blown to pieces. Haha. And we also demolished two rackets so we sent my aunt to the store to buy more!

Sunday, we attended church. And played games. Of course :)

Monday, we played games. And saw the movie 17 Miracles. Definitely a good one to see. We also barbecued, played some serious badminton, and watched the aerial fireworks from our driveway.

Tuesday, we went to the temple in the morning and did upwards of 80 names total between the 6 of us. And that night we had a wicked rainstorm with crazy lightning and thunder! It was awesome.

Wednesday, the adults went to the temple again while I taught in the morning. We played games. In the afternoon, we went to Bridal Veil Falls and then to the Creamery for some awesome ice cream :) And then we played badminton outside again and then games after it got dark.

We convinced them to stay another day because they really didn't have to be home too early. So today, I taught 3 lessons and afterwards we went to the AF Steel Days art show where my sister took 3rd place and got an honorable mention. Great job, Bianca! Unfortunately, I did not take this day off so I had to go to work for 5 hours. Afterwards, we went to Olive Garden where we waited for like an hour and then another hour inside the restaurant. We didn't play too many games after we got back... too tired... yet I'm still up. I somehow can't get to bed!

Anyways, you probably didn't read through all that. But it's okay. Because it's for me and for the future because I really stink at journal keeping and it'd be nice to know what we did while they were here.

This was definitely the best time I've had with them. It's always fun, but this one was especially fun. Even if our missionary wasn't there, we lost Kaile to trek on Tuesday, and then my dad and sister to trek this morning. It's okay though. It was still worth it.

I love my family.

Writer's block.

Oh what to do? I have no idea what to write about. And I don't want to be one of those bloggers that just tells about everything they do during the day. That's boring. I want to be witty. I want to write something clever, humorous, and serious. But I dunno what!

Maybe it's the monotony of summer. And to be honest, it's not quite a summer to me. I teach in the morning 3 days a week, then work all afternoon until about 6:30 every. single. day. I look forward to the weekends. I hate Mondays.

I guess this is how the working crowd of the world feels! Meh.

The perfect day.

First of all, I've decided that I absolutely LOVE teaching violin. Much more than piano. I'm so glad I got two violin students for the summer!

Date 1 (the real one):

Consisted of being picked up in his sky blue 1990 Honda Civic. We drove to his house, piled two kayaks on to this tiny Civic and one canoe on his Suburban, and headed up the windy roads into the beautiful nature that surrounds us, aka AF canyon. We parked at the nearly overflowing Tibble Fork Reservoir, and exited the car and were welcomed by gusts of cold wind. We unloaded. We carried everything down. And he and I went first, he insisting we use the kayaks. Out on the lake, we discussed things. He discovered my love for longboarding and said we're going to go soon. I cannot wait! After heading to shore, we ate some lunch. Yes, the boys had packed a picnic. Ham and cheese sandwiches! Mmmm. I actually like those. And Oreos are always a must!

I'm rather impressed by this young man. He had been promising me a date for months now and finally, after enough razzing, he took me out. It was absolutely the most pleasant date I have been on. He even made sure I got home early enough to make it to work on time. What a gentleman! Thank you, Kyle, for a marvelous date! And now, we must longboard :)

Date 2 (the spontaneous one):

Began with a jam session. It had been a long time since we had jammed last. Again, he amazed me with his incredible talent. He played and I sat and listened. He taught me how to improvise better. He showed me how to increase my ability with perfect pitch. He quizzed me to see how close I could get. I only missed one and even got F#! After jamming, we got in his truck. By this time, it was 10:00 at night, maybe a little too late to begin a date, but whatever :) We headed to Wendy's for frosties and fries. After purchasing our wonderful meal, we drove to the AF cemetery (of all places!) and parked to enjoy. We talked. We talked about everything. There was never a dull or silent moment. We laughed. We got serious. After about 15 minutes, he drove me to his house and escorted me (yes, escorted!) to my car. We talked for a few more minutes, and then I left.

Thank you, Matt, for making our evening a spontaneous date. Thanks for jamming with me and being my inspiration in piano. I am so excited I got to go on at least one date before you leave on your mission next week, and I'm so excited for you to go out! You'll be a fantastic missionary. Thank you for everything you have been to me--an inspiration and a great friend.

Wow, who ever thought to score two dates in one day? I feel very blessed and honored to have spent my day with such wonderful boys! Here's to plenty more dates this summer :)