Camping, the Fair, and the Demolition Derby

So this past weekend we went camping with Tia and Blaise up Mink Creek. We had a lot of fun just hanging out with them. This is the only picture I took, but I think it is a pretty cool one.
So on Saturday (we went camping Friday night) me and Eric went to the demolition derby at the E.I.S.F. It's sad to say but it's one of the reasons why I love living in Idaho. It's pretty darn redneck but I love it anyways; the loud noises, the mullets, mud, and the smelly cars.

Before the derby started we got there a little early so we decided to go look at the animals. The first picture is of a huge longhorn and the second one is of some cute little ponies.
After the animals we had some delicious fair food and then we decided to go get in our seats for the derby. Let me just say it was friggin awesome!! During each heat I would pick a car or two, pretty much just on looks, and hope that it would make it to the finals. Well, pretty much just one of my cars (#7 of course) made it to the finals but it didn't win. They had a new round with compact cars, which was pretty cool too. There weren't as many cars in that heat so they were able to move a lot faster. It was cool watching the radiators (or whatever it was) explode and it would be like a mini Old Faithful. The car that won (#29) was really smoky at the end and a couple of times it blew smoke rings. One time a car sprayed some mud clear up into the bleachers where we were sitting (which was pretty much at the top) and hit me on the leg.
I love Idaho!!!

A Fun Day. . .

Yesterday Stacey came over to help me unpack a little bit and to figure out where to put all of my pictures. She brought the kids over and they were a lot of fun. Even though we didn't get a whole lot done we had a lot of fun. This picture is of the kids watching Hercules.
Later that night one of my friends had her wedding reception. She was gorgeous and her husband seemed like a pretty nice guy. He is a very lucky guy. It was so cute watching them. They seemed so happy together.

Our New Apartment!!!!

Let me just say this place is sooooo much better than Pulling Courts! But the story of how we found it (it's kind of a good one, at least for me). We were living with my parents for a while until we were able to find a place. We applied to some subsidized housing but it would take a while for the application process so we decided to look in the classifieds. We needed a map so we could find some of the places so we decided to go to the institute to get a map of the city that had the ward boundaries on it. So I go in to get a map but there weren't any left so I decided to get the apartment listings they have there and ended up getting the last one! We drove around and looked at all the places in the classifieds but they were either kind of scary or nobody answered the phone when we'd call. So we looked in the institute listings and after going through a whole bunch we got to the last one on the list. We ended up getting this place (2 bedroom, 1 bathroom, kitchen [with a normal size oven!], and a livingroom/diningroom), for a really good deal; utilities included, Internet, washer and dryer, everything for a really good price!

This is the livingroom that we'll be using as a dining room. The first picture is the view from the stairs (it's a basement apartment) and the second is the view from the kitchen with our diningroom table in it.
This is the big bedroom that we are using as a livingroom instead because it's bigger than the real livingroom and easier to play the Wii in. We also have the computer desk in there, and a smaller table in it so I can sew on it. While we were moving in we stored all the boxes in here.

This is our kitchen, before and after having our stuff in it.

This is our second bedroom, the one that we're actually using as our bedroom.
The bathroom. . .
This is the scary storage room/water heater room. We don't store a whole lot in there because it's kind of scary and the light is at the back of the room (it's one of those string lights) so Eric is pretty much the only one that goes in there.

Camping. . . Sort of. . .

Last night Eric and I, and the Turpins went camping. Amanda's parents owned some land out by Lava so we decided to stay there. They have a shack on their property that we decided to stay in since it looked like it might rain. It was a lot of fun. For dinner me and Eric got this freeze dried (?) dinner from Walmart that we wanted to try. It was teriyaki chicken and rice and it was a lot better than we had thought it was going to be. The second picture is a pretty sunset on the way there.

The Fair

So this past weekend we had a family reunion sort of thing at Eric's parent's house, with all of his siblings and some relatives. We had some good food and it was fun visiting with all the people we hadn't seen in a while. After most people had left Eric, me, Elicia, and Grant decided to go to the fair and eat some good ol "healthy" fried food. While we were there, we saw a sign advertising chocolate covered bacon. Eric pretty much dared himself to try it but Grant actually dared him to. So he got it and it wasn't as gross as I thought it would be. You couldn't really taste the bacon until after the chocolate was melted away. I got a funnel cake, which I hadn't had in a long time. It was pretty good but super rich. I ended up throwing almost half of it away.

Chelsea's Bridal Shower

Yesterday was my good friend Chelsea's bridal shower. They played the game where you ask questions about their future spouse and if they got it wrong they had to eat/chew a piece of gum. She actually did pretty good, but she still did have a big wad of gum in her mouth.
I got her some Glow-in-the-Dark Body paint, a coupon book (a massage, dinner, dishes, etc.), and some "other stuff." The shower was a lot of fun; we played a lot of fun games and had some good food.

Eric's Birthday (Part 2)

This past weekend we had a family barbecue with all my siblings and their families, cousins, and neighbors. It was a lot of fun getting to see all these people we hadn't seen this whole summer.

I helped the kids (Katie and Jace) pick strawberries and raspberries. Before Jace ate his strawberries we had to wash them off. I just thought these pictures were kind of cute.
After we picked some strawberries and while we were picking raspberries I found a bird that was caught in the net to keep the birds out of the raspberries. It was kind of scary. I thought it broke it's legs but when I cut it free it it flew away.

Jace showing his muscles...
My mom has this fake turtle that she'll hide around the yard for the kids to find whenever they come over, sometimes they get a treat/prize. Jace found it first (with my help) and then Katie and Jace would hide it from each other while the other would find it.
These are pictures of the kids "closing" their eyes. Pretty cute.
Eric turned 25 for his birthday (a quarter of a century!). For his birthday, Eric didn't want to have a cake (weird) so instead of a cake he decided he wanted a peach pie. My friend Leisha gave me this really yummy recipe for the pie (Thanks!). Tia and Blaise also made a cake, that kind of looked like the donut from the Simpsons, but it was still good.