Summer Super Post

Are you ready for this? 

I'm about to catch you up on my whole summer in one super-sized post.

Here is how I spent more of my summer vacation out of town (and the heat) 

than in it.

My first excursion was a road trip to San Diego with Tim.  

He got to visit his cousin and I got to visit my best friend. Win-win. 

I only thought to take pictures at the zoo, but we did plenty of other fun things while we were there. I promise.

I was very sad to leave the nice weather, so I went back to California 2 weeks later. 

This time I was in Oceanside with my mom, sis, and nephew for our annual girls trip (girls+cute baby).

See, I told you he's cute.

(and no, I'm not trying to punch him)

 Plus, some cute little Buswell girls came to visit us for a bit.

And of course, we had to take the annual jumping in the air shots.

I'm still working on jumping with my mouth closed, but it seems to be a hopeless endeavor at this point.

After being back home for about 4 days, I left again to go to Utah.

The crowning moment of the entire trip was when I won the 

Annual Cox Family Rock, Paper, Scissors Championship.

I'm kind of a big deal now. 

After 2 weeks in Utah, I went home for a week.

Then, I went camping!!

I totally dominated in Peanuts/Nertz and then Tim creamed us in everything else.

Lesson to learn: Don't mess with us.

Do not be fooled by this picture.

I let a lot of clay pigeons live this day.

The whole gang.

I sure love them.

(and Ray & Diane's trailer potty)

Now that I've been home about 5 days, I have one last little Relief Society cabin retreat to attend and then it's back to work for me.

Man, I love summer. 

One Year Older

For my birthday this year, I couldn't stop thinking about was how blessed I am.  

I was so happy to be able to spend my weekend with people that I love so very much.  

On Friday, I got to spend the day with my amazing students.

One of them rallied her family together to decorate my classroom door for me.

Plus, it didn't hurt that it was pajama/read-a-thon day

(One of the perks of sharing your b-day with Dr. Seuss).

On Saturday, I invited two of the most non-morning people I know to go to breakfast with me.

And they came!

To thank them, I introduced them to the awesome bathrooms at Liberty Market.

 Jen had a great time in the "kitchen" stall.

And I'm not sure what sort of experience Tim had in this one,

but I'm sure it was life-changing.

Plus, Lydia was in town!!

Her super cute daughter brought "my baby" all the way from CA to me.  

I apparently am not quite prepared to be a mother yet because I haven't

invested in a car seat for Baby Iris. 

I also enjoyed a scrumptious dinner at Joe's Farm Grill with a few friends.

That picture is on someone else's camera and I haven't pestered her for it yet.

Another highlight was receiving the most amazing poster ever:

Oh, JTT.

I don't think I need to say anything more.

On Sunday, I had an incredible evening with my incredible family.

Those pictures are on someone else's camera, too.

I'll just say that you haven't lived until you've made pizza on a barbeque grill. 

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that it was a wonderful weekend!

Thank you to all of you who made all my birthday wishes come true.

That reminds me, I forgot to make a wish before blowing out my candles.

I guess I didn't really need to make one.  :)

and the best dad award goes to...

Hey Dad!

I wanted to say thank you 

for the AMAZING Dutch oven apple cobbler!

You're the best!

Love,

Boppy

P.S. It was totally worth poking a toothpick in there 20 times.

I wasn't smart enough to take a picture of my dad's cobbler.

This is the closest I could get.

It doesn't really even compare.

Growing into my Name

Did your mom say everyone else's name in the family before getting to yours? 

Whenever my mom tries to say my name, she almost always says my sister's first.

Only she doesn't say her whole name-she catches herself before getting to the second syllable.

So, it comes out like this:

"And Bethany"

but it sounds like this:

"Aunt Bethany"

For years, I have tried to explain to her that I'm not an aunt.

But now I am

(and I couldn't be happier)!!!

No more of this only being a vicarious aunt for my friends' kids and their nieces/nephews.

Family Bonding

In my most recent dream, my whole family (minus the brother-in-law,sorry Cam) entered the neighbor's house without permission.  We were on a hunt for a special bottle of Mod Podge my sister needed for a craft project.  I realized after I woke up that I've had dreams before in which the fam broke into this same neighbor's house.  The only difference this time was that the neighbors were actually in the house when we snuck inside.  We felt a little silly when we found them in the kitchen.  Luckily, they were glad to have visitors and provided the Mod Podge for all of Andrea's crafting needs.  Soon, the conversation turned to gardening and the mom was asking me if I planted a garden while I lived in Utah since they have much nicer weather there.  After explaining that I'm really not the gardener type, we left.  Through the window.  Sure enough, a whole biker gang was walking up to the house and gave us some interesting looks as they saw how we executed our exit. 

Come and knock on our door...

As I was driving the other day, I was passed by a truck similar to the one below. The main difference, though, was that the back tire was missing (the one my handy yellow arrow is pointing to). The one lonely tire on the right side looked pretty awkward. I wanted to take a picture, but he sped away too quickly. I'm not sure why he was in such a hurry. He was probably going to get a new tire.

Speaking of third wheels, I invited myself to join my sis and bro-in-law to go to the MIM (Musical Instrument Museum). Right away, we formed a family band with matching guitars.

Then, I fulfilled my life-long dream to play a harp.

There were plenty of great instruments on display, but my favorite was the air guitar, as pictured in its case below. The plaque next to it read that it was made of:

Nitrogen, Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide, Dreams.

The main reason we went that evening was to see Camaron's favorite band,

What Laura Says.

It's still unclear who Laura is, but if I had to guess, I'd say she says, "Put on a great show."

And they did.

Father's Day!

Since I'll be away this Father's Day, I've enlisted the Tanner girls to help me sing this special song for my dad:

http://youtu.be/M3pqb7lbw8E?t=1m35s

I also wrote this limmerick poem:

There once was a father named Rob
Who did a fantastic job
of raising his kids
and opening lids
and making grilled corn on the cob.

Love you Dad!

Mother's Day

I've been wondering about the punctuation of Mother's Day for the past few weeks. Why is the apostrophe before the S, rather than after it? Doesn't this day belong to all the mothers? I found the answer today after I learned about Anna Jarvis, the woman who worked hard to get Mother's Day recognized as a holiday and then campaigned against the holiday once it became a commercialized Hallmark holiday. It was she who insisted that the apostrophe be where it is:

"She was specific about the location of the apostrophe; it was to be a singular possessive, for each family to honour their mother, not a plural possessive commemorating all mothers in the world."-Louisa Taylor

The interesting/sad thing is that she never had any children of her own.

Now on to more cheerful things...

This one time I had this sister who talked about all the wonderful things I had brought to her life on her blog where she always uses the phrase "this one time." Now I'd like to share with you a few of the wonderful things that my Mamasita brought into my life:

- A love of literature (I tried to give credit to my grandma for this once and my mom corrected me)

- A knowledge of how to sew (I still need a ton more practice before I'm going to get to her level, though)

- An example of selfless love

- A knowledge of how to pick out pineapples at the grocery store

- A love of the Gospel

- An addiction to good chocolate (none of that waxy business for us)

- A love of laughter

- And basically a bunch of other things that have to do with love :)

Anna Jarvis would be so proud of the non-Hallmarky cards that she received today.

She got an "authentic" gift certificate (apparently if you write "authentic," it makes it so),

a beautiful card illustrated by my bro-in-law (not his wife, the art major, for some unknown reason),

and a note that was cut up word by word, inspired by some hole-punch circles on my bedroom floor and Elder Scott's talk from Conference.

Love you Mom!

(and I love these *high quality* pics I took on my phone)