An Elephant Never Forgets...

Remember When...

I have a bunch of blogger buddies that have done this on their blog and I thought it was really cute. I love thinking back and remembering on funny times and good memories. Here are the rules...

1. As a comment on my blog, leave a memory that you and I have had together. It doesn't matter if you remember me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you! If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing and leave a memory about you on your blog!

Benita Tagged Me...

so here goes....

3 Joys: Spending time with family & friends, Vacations, Shopping.

3 Fears: Heights, Uncertainty, & Car accidents.

3 Goals: Run a full Marathon, Become as good of a homemaker as my mom & sisters, become a better photographer.

3 Obsessions:The Internet, Frozen Yogurt, Health & Exercise, and the sun. (Can i have 4??)

3 Random:I LOVE discovering new music, I sometimes wish I didn't have a cell phone, and I'm often grilled by appalled people because I don't like meat.

3 Tags: Lindsey, Nichole, Kiley.

and yet another....home sweet home...

Well, for all of you who i've bored with my tales of the stress of not having a place to live in the fall...stress no more! (Because i'm sure you were worried ;)....) We found the CUTEST place to live. WE = Me, Benita, Cami, and Roxanne. It is an adorable condo up at Highland Park. I don't know HOW it keeps happening, but for some reason Beni and I have always been so lucky with housing. Lucky as in, we never actually sign for a place until the last minute, and we always get the best places. The Avenues, The YBH, Mt. Vista...all great examples of this. For those of you who haven't experienced the housing circus that is Provo, UT be glad! It is SUCH a pain to find a good place at a decent price, that is livable. It is especially hard that all those gung-ho BYU'ers look for fall housing in January!! Dang them for being so on top of things! Anyways, I am SO relieved, and I am SO excited! It will be adorable. I will even have my own bathroom! Could life get any better? "I submit that it CANNOT!" (Thanks Brian Regan)

Newport Beach

The whole Smith family trekked down to Newport Beach this past week, and we had such a great time. There were too many fun pictures to choose from, so I had to document them all. Here's a little taste of what the week looked like.

After mom greeted us all with our "welcome buckets" we were set to head to the beach Monday morning. The Simas family was nice enough to let our whole clan come hang out on Laguna Beach with them. They have access to a private beach so we basically had it all to ourselves. It was amazing!! (I don't know if you can see the stairs in the background but it was about a 10 min hike down to the beach. Well worth it though!!)

We had some mad Smashball tourney's going on. Very fun.

All the kids had so much fun playing in the sand all day.

Me and Savy on the "magic school bus." Papa working up some fun with Blake-O's, & Trav soaking up some sun.

Harper and Ty enjoying the nice weather. Me ki & Nichole in one of my favorite self-taken shots.

Dad & Mom, Linds, & Savy loving the perfect weather.

Eating at CPK @ Fashion Island. Shopping + Good food = amazing.

Ki, Ty, Savy, & I. Papa, Brons, & Bosty doing "The electric bull"

We spent the evening up at the firepit playing games and roasting s'mores. It was so fun! Trav won the family B-ball game, but I came in a close second. Watch out BYU intramurals, I just might have found my niche.

Brons and Elliott had so much fun running up down and around all the big hills. I love this pic of Nichole and I!

Trav & the Kiddie-O's. Blake, Grammy, & Papa roasting s'mores.

I LOVE this pic of Boston. He insisted on having his s'more wrapped up because it was getting him dirty. He's so funny. Savy & Nichole both enjoyed a little mallow goodness, & Kiley and I playing a mean game of teatherball.

We spent the evenings doing what the Smith Family does best...playing games! Here Linds and Ty are representing the hierarchy of Scum. Linds was losing and had to wear the scum hat. The picture on the right was of Trav's B-day breakfast. Happy B-day Trav!

On Thursday we got to go to the taping of So You Think You Can Dance. AMAZING. We took some pics right before, unfortunately we couldn't take our camera's inside. It was so awesome though. My friend Dane had two extra tickets so Kiley and I used his, and My sister's and Taylor and Tracey Simas were able to get in with random people's extra tickets. It was an all day event, but we were on the front row. SO awesome. Thanks dane!!

On the last day we went to South Coast Plaza to hit up the Nordstrom sale, do some shopping, some dinner, and a movie. It was a GREAT way to end such a fun trip. Sweet shades eh?
Thanks Mom and Dad for such an awesome trip! I can't wait until next year!

I feel good...

Pretty much I'm really happy right now. After a LONG day of driving with Linds, Trav, and the kids we finally pulled into The Newport Coast Villas, greeted by all our family members. I LOVE the feeling of getting to your vacation destination after being stuffed in a car for 11 hours. We pull up and we are greeted with an amazing dinner. My fam had eaten before we got there, so it was all ready for us. (Nothing like getting out of being stuffed in a car to a yummy Sunday dinner!) My mom greeted us with her "welcome buckets" complete with a beach towel, supersoaker squirt gun (yep they're still around), candy, towel clips, a beach bag, electric toothbrush, water torpedoes....yep my mom is pretty much adorable. I love have always loved holidays because my mom has always made such a big deal of them. She made it feel like our arrival was a holiday, and I loved that!! Basically, she rocks. After some catching up over some strawberry shortcake we decided to walk around and look at the resort. Let me just add that the weather here is perfect. We all walked around and checked everything out. I love this place. I will NOT have a hard time staying here all week that is for sure. My brother Tyler challenged me to some teatherball. I actually wasn't even aware that it was a real game with rules. I thought you just hit it and watched it wind around the pole. Turns out I kind of love the game...i'm going to have to work on my form while i'm here. Finishing the night off with games and getting to go to be with OUT setting my alarm. This is going to be a good week.

Lots of Fireworks...literally and figuratively...

Happy 4th! What a fun weekend!! I love the fourth of July, mainly because I am IN LOVE with fireworks. It was so strange to not have the whole family here for the 4th like usual, but I still mananged to have a good time. We floated the river with some friends, and I WISH i had some pictures from that. Don't worry, I flipped within the first 5 seconds of being on the river. And Ended up getting fully submerged at the end. It was FREEEZing. Quite an experience! Later that night we went up to the Temple Hill to watch the fireworks with some friends. So fun!

Jenna, Benita & I

Trevor, Brian, & I (not quite sure what the faces are here??)
Me & Jenni Bo Bo. It was so fun to have here here for a week!

On Saturday Morning. Brad Randall, Rob Graham, Jenna, Benita, and I drove to Boise for Heather and Josh's Wedding Reception which was SO fun and SO beautiful. I was so glad I was able to go!

Me with the ADORABLE couple. Aren't they cute??Beni & I pre-reception...and all polka dotted out At one point in the reception we got ourselves involved in a little game of what we affectionately call "M&M roulette" Basically everyone has their hands in fists and some people have a bag of blue M&M's in thier hands. One person (unaware of which hands hold the bags of delightfullness) chooses two hands, and if they choose hands with M&M's they have to eat all of them. Needless to say a lot of M&M's were consumed in a short period of time.

Robby G & Boo Rad w/the bridesmaids. This is what Brad called our "old time" Photo. Rob didn't get the memo.
Lova's Bridesmaids.
Yep. I caught the bouquet. Unfortunately the lack of prospects doesn't make this catch to promising...i guess we'll just have to wait and see now won't we. ;)
Heath I'm so excited for you! Thanks for letting us share your special day with you! xoxoxo