I am not ashamed to say that I am a little caught up in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. I know that the books were written for teenagers, but I just can't help myself. I am torn as to whether or not I want to see the movies based on the series. The first one comes out 12/12/08. I vowed not even to watch the trailer, but I happened upon it the other day and couldn't resist. I have never seen a movie do justice to the book it was based on, but maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised with Twilight. Here's the trailer:

Twilight The Big Tease

Birthday Fun! I think...

So, last Saturday was the big day -- the big 30. (But, I told everyone that I'm 24, so if anyone asks, LIE!) To be completely honest, I wasn't super excited about this particular landmark. My Dad called me a couple of times during the prior week to ask what I was doing for the big day. My plans were really to sleep till 9 a.m., go to a 45 minute spin class (I'm a little addicted), shower, then climb back into bed, lay in the fetal position and cry all day long. Ok, that's a little dramatic, but I had no expectations and no plans for the day just in case that's what I needed to do. Well, the day surprisingly turned out WAY different than I planned (or hadn't planned...) I got up in time for my spin class and had a super good, sweaty workout with my great pal Mariela. The class sang Happy Birthday to me! :) I was going to lift after class, but the weight room was conveniently packed with meatheads grunting their way through their workout, so I headed home to do some strength training on my own (sorry this has so many details, but it is absolutely impossible for me to tell a short story). When I walked into my apartment and up the stairs, I saw a black Happy 30th Birthday sign (very fitting that it was black!) I knew I was in for it. I heard some shuffling and a few "Oh No's!" as I climbed the stairs. I rounded the corner just in time for Janae and Jordan to run into the kitchen, throw confetti all over me and scream "Happy Birthday!" They hadn't planned for me to get home that soon (apparently they had both asked for specific details the day before about my exact workout and what time I would be home - I didn't think anything of it or even remember telling them what I was doing. Weird.) Anywho, they had decked my apartment out in the traditional celebratory decorations. It was cool. They rushed me to the shower (apparently I didn't smell so great) by saying that I couldn't open my present until I was completely ready for the day. I did as I was told, preparing myself for a potentially embarrassing experience because I know my sisters all too well! When I was finally ready for the day, I ran to the living room to open my big, green present. Now I'll tell the story with pictures because you just gotta see what they did to me!

Yes, it really does!



There were "rules" for this adventure!

Please notice that I changed my shirt so that I would match the feather boa...whoa. I never thought I would say those words!


I am fully aware of just how hot I look!

So, here's the birthday surprise: I GOT to wear this incredibly ridiculous get-up and my adorable sisters took me to the mall! Yay, huh? The cool part is that they had pooled money from the fam and gave me another little present in the parking lot. The rules were that I had to wear all the crazy items and I had an hour to spend all the money or I had to give whatever remained back to them. FUN! It was great to see my fellow shoppers reactions. A few wish me a Happy Birthday while most just looked at me like I was crazy. I hurried through the mall so that I could spend all the money and Janae and Jordan thought they were so funny and would walk slow that that it looked like I had dressed up and gone to the mall by myself. Very funny girls! Just wait till your birthdays! I have months to plan my revenge and it's going to be good!


When my hour was up and I had succeeded in blowing all my b-day dough, we went to lunch at Winger's to get my annual Asphault pie (YUM!) and created quite a scene at the restaurant. Our waitress tried to guess my age...I'm not even kidding when I tell you that she guessed "21!" and I don't even think she was just trying to be nice. Granted, I was wearing a tiara, a feather boa and was carrying a wand...but, bless her heart. That made my day. I told her that she was way off, that I was 24!


My sisters are so cute!

So, despite the fact that I was utterly embarrassed during our mall adventure, I really had a super great time! Thanks Janae and Jordan! I owe you both one! Seriously, be very excited (and maybe a little scared) about your next birthdays! :)

Emerson Hart is so cool!

So, back in the day, I was a big fan of the band Tonic. Most my age will remember them. Well, the lead singer of Tonic, Emerson Hart has just released a solo album called Cigarettes and Gasoline. If the title of the album doesn't grab you, his music definitely will. One of his songs is on my songlist. He is amazing. He performed at the Hard Rock Cafe in Salt Lake on June 6th and my good friend Jennifer Vance and I went to check him out. We were extremely impressed. I have been to a lot of concerts and his is definitely in my top five. He's such a great performer. AND, he's really, really nice. We met him and got our picture with him (look up). I'm sure he'll continue to do great things...and, he slipped and told us that we haven't heard the last from Tonic either. Don't tell because apparently his label doesn't even know yet! What I loved most about his show was to see someone living their passion. The fact that he loves music and performing was very evident. It was also cool to see that he loves his fans too.

I HEART MOAB!

I've only ever been to Moab once and I was 10-years-old. There's not much that I remember about that trip except that it was really hot and that it was a really long time to be in the car with my 5 siblings. I went with some friends this past weekend and had so much fun. We rented some Jeeps and hit the trails all day Saturday and I had the time of my life. Jeeping could quickly become a passion of mine! The coolest part is that boys drove the other two Jeeps and they were impressed that a girl could drive just as well as them. In fact, Andrew voted me MVP. We got to see some amazing things. The desert is so beautiful. Here's some of what we saw and a taste of my 'amazing' ability (it was really just dumb luck!) This part was nothing compared to some other places we went...

Ashley, Mariela and me ready to hit the trails!

So, I know - in typical Cali fashion - that I have taken and posted an obscene amount of photos from our Moab trip, but I make no apologies. It was so awesome that it had to be documented well (most of you won't be surprised that this is not all of the photos that I took!) It was such a beautiful day with some crazy awesome people. I can't wait to do it again!