Family

After not taking any pictures while I was home we decided to take one right before we left. So here's some of the family (minus Thomas-on a mission, Carolyn and Nathan-out of state, and me-taking the picture).



Kinda hard to get everyone smiling at the same time!

Oregon

Between summer school and when school starts again in the fall I got a week off. Partly because no one else has this time off and I didn't want to go somewhere cool by myself I decided to come home to Oregon. Oregon in the summer is amazing. It's actually been hotter here the first couple of days than it's been in LA all summer. But it was a nice dry heat when I got off the plane and really it felt wonderful.
I've taken advantage of the heat and relaxed by the pool each day, kayaked the Santiam River (class I rapids!), gone sales tax-free shopping, eaten food picked straight from the garden (blackberries, blueberries, peas, beans, zucchini, tomatoes, etc.), made blackberry and banana chocolate chip ice cream, caught up with a few old friends and hung out with the family. John decided to come home this week too so it's been fun to see him as well.
It's been nice and relaxing to not think about work or anything else. Steven was kind enough to shut my arm in the truck door Monday so that's been a pain, literally. But other than that it's been a great vacation.

Hello Goodbye

Red Velvet recently hit 80,000 miles and with that came a not completely unexpected set of problems. One night after tap class I went out to my car and it wouldn't start. After several phone conversations, some starter fluid, AAA guy banging on the gas tank it finally started. All was good until Friday night about midnight when it wouldn't start again. By that point I basically knew it was the fuel pump and wasn't all too happy. But since I was stressed enough with work and life at the moment I just couldn't add buying a new car into the mix. So I got the fuel pump replaced and had basically decided that I would just keep driving her until something else major went wrong. Well that next week when I was at the Keane concert I opened the trunk to get some blankets out and it wouldn't shut. This had happened before about a year ago and I had to get the trunk welded back together. So that was the last straw, Red Velvet had to go.

So the past few weeks I have been crazy busy at work, coming home and researching cars, test driving cars on the weekend. Finally it all paid off and I found my newest big ticket item, Martini, the 2009 Corolla. I don't usually name cars this quickly but while Jessica and I were sitting at the dealership the name just came. Some how we went from Red Velvet to Grey Goose Martini and the name just stuck. And since my Dad was running a crazy relay race the weekend I got my car I ended up doing the whole thing on my own (with Jessica's help).



So now I don't have to worry about if he's going to start, if the trunk is going to close, if there are any weird noises, or if the Velcro on the glove compartment is going to hold. It was a bittersweet goodbye to Red Velvet when I left her at the dealership, but I must say that I definitely moved up in the car world.

Concerts

The past couple of weeks I've gone to a couple of concerts here. Keane and Ingrid Michaelson came to the Greek Theater a couple of weeks ago and a group of us went for a great summer concert. I think I liked Ingrid even more than Keane. She was such a good performer.



Then yesterday was the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach and I went down to spend the day in the sun. John, Shana and I drove down and parked many many blocks from the beach since it was so crowded. But we caught up with Heidi and Nate, watched some surfing right from the beach, caught some of the skateboarding competition, and then were mauled by mobs of people as we fought for what turned out to be great seats in the sand for the Weezer concert after it was all over. Surfing, swimsuits, concerts on the beach, can't get much better than that for a summer Saturday in California.

Stress

Stress is the theme of my life right now. Hopefully in the coming weeks I'll have a little less stress and a little more time to let you know all that I've been doing. Until then, wish me luck.

Birthday!

My birthday this year turned into a 4-day celebration. I hadn't even really planned on doing anything, but it just kinda happened that way. Thursday at work my office brought in cake. One of my little kids made me the cutest birthday cake too.

Thursday night I went to dinner with a few people at El Cholo.


The girls decided that watching the end of the NBA finals was better than sitting at the table with the rest of us.

Maybe that's why I like those girls so much. If it'd been college basketball I would have been right there with them. Yes the Lakers did win for me.
Friday night we had a rockin' party at my house. It was fun to see lots of friends I hadn't seen in a while! Sadly I forgot to get my camera out, so there's no footage from that night. Thanks girls for all the jewelry I got for my birthday!
Saturday I went down to Orange County to hang out with my dad who was in town for my grandparents 60th anniversary. We hit up the sporting goods store and did some birthday shopping. I now have a backpacking stove and a lantern to add to my other camping equipment. Time for a camping trip. After that we went to dinner and just hung out for the rest of the night.
Sunday we all got together for Father's Day and June birthdays. I was the only June birthday that was there from the family. Laurel made me a beautiful cake and dinner was amazing as well.

Camping chairs were also added to my camping equipment too. It was great to see the family and have a good healthy dose of medicine, politics and religion, the Evans family staple topics of conversation.

After 4 days of celebration I guess it's time to embrace being 26.

Happy Anniversary

Today marks my three year anniversary of living in LA. It's hard to believe it's been that long. But it may be even harder to believe that I feel totally at home here. I'm not saying that I want to live here forever, because I don't, but somehow LA is home for now. Shana and I have a 5 year plan and I'm not even sure I'll make it 5 years here. This year has been filled with ups and downs much like every year. But I'd have to say that the good has outweighed the bad. I got to visit my sister in North Carolina; take several trips with friends to Pismo Beach, Palm Springs, San Francisco; attend my first Indian wedding, go to Disneyland for the first time in years, find a job...twice, try sushi for the first time, get my first pedicure, cut 10 inches off my hair, make some great new friends, attend a bachelorette party on the Queen Mary, attend several cousins' weddings, spend the 4th of July in the Huntington Beach brothel aka Heidi's apartment, finish my first crocheted patchwork quilt, get my picture in the Deseret News, go rock climbing outdoors for the first time, weave a May pole, make waffle cones and ice cream with my very own waffle cone maker and ice cream maker, and so much more. Here's to year three. On to year four!