twenty:

a plethora of reason's and highlights of the most funnest trip with my momma and sistas

20. getting to start the trip off a few weeks early with a four way phone call where you are not sure who is talking because you all sound so alike and hearing your sister say she is running around in the parking lot of her apartment because she is so excited you are coming to visit her

19. having someone to lean on, talk to, and share a movie with on the plane

18. taking pictures of each other's funny/ugly faces and laughing so hard you might pee your pants, just to pass the time spent in the airport

17. being reminded that even when you are on a trip you can still eat healthy ~ protein bars instead of hoho's . . . thanks ame

16. emotional breakthroughs in concourse D of the atlanta airport

15. screaming your lungs out for your sister and having the other performers wanting to hire you as professional audience members

14. running through the park and dodging people so as not to be late for your sister's last show and dancing in the aisles when you get there.

13. convincing your mom to go on one more roller coaster even though she claims she gets sick, then seeing her wind blown hair and smiling face after getting front row on the griffon and hearing her say that that was the best roller coaster she has ever been on, and totally agreeing with her

12. sharing a turkey leg the size of your arm and ripping it off with your teeth just like in the movies

11. swooning with your sista over josh's dimples and smooth moves up on the stage;)

10. using abbrev’s like tots, aws, ser and laughing every time someone slips one into the conversation, especially when it is someone besides your sisters and stopping them to ask if they really just said “dec” instead of decent and being so happy that he did.

9. telling your sister to pose for a picture right in front of someone who looks exactly like andre the giant and really focusing the entire picture on him not her

8. getting to share stories of roommates, boyfriends and husbands and getting advice and opinions that only a sister can give

7. watching your sister watch her new boyfriend play his guitar and seeing the twitterpation in her eyes

6. accidentally using your flash when trying to get a picture of the declaration of independence and getting really nervous that “they” will notice and take your camera away from you like they threatened

5. borrowing your moms toothbrush the entire time because you keep forgetting to buy one . . . and it doesn’t really matter cause she is your mom and you have the same germs anyway

4. spending the night at the airport with your mom, who you are so glad is there with you because if she wasn't there you don't think you could have been quite so optimistic about the situation

3. realizing how much you laugh the same, talk the same, walk the same and dance the same

2. watching your sister sing, dance and perform her heart out and bursting with happiness because that’s your sister up there and she is so good that you start dreaming of trips you will take to see her perform on broadway

1. remembering how much fun it is to be with your mom and sistas and that sharing a trip with them is incredibly fun and oh so memorable!

flying standby = 24 hours in an airport . . .

. . . but i guess we made the best of it.

caution: don't fly standby unless you have a really good book {thank goodness for eclipse and the host}, and are prepared to potentially spend the night in the airport and have a blow up mattress on hand that you are willing to blow up by mouth in order to have a semi-decent night's sleep . . . cause that's exactly what happened. :)

i'm pretty sure the money we saved wasn't worth it, but i think it's cause we stupidly tried to fly home on a sunday . . . we should have just waited til monday. :) oh well ~ you live, you learn, and sometimes you sleep in the atlanta airport.

taking turns . . . mom really had to concentrate :) so funny, i was past the point of frustrated at this point ~ just laughing at the situation.

pretty cozy for an airport

finally on an airplane home! yea!

cami and the starlight orchestra :)

so the whole point of coming to virginia was to see cami perform! she did not let us down! amazing, as usual! we had such a fun time yelling, screaming and even dancing in the audience! i think we saw the 1/2 hour show like 7 or 8 times while we were there and i never got sick of it! she was fun and the other four that she performed with we so fun too! they all hammed it up perfectly!

colonial williamsburg ~ saturday morning

we visited colonial williamsburg on saturday morning! there were a lot of fun photo ops there . . .

across the water was jamestown island . . . so pretty

colonial parade {they have people all over dressed in colonial clothing ~ it's pretty fun}

check cami's face out in the photo below ~ classic :)

a pretty garden we found!

busch gardens . . . friday

we went to busch gardens all day on friday. it's called busch gardens europe so there are lots of different countries. cami's show was in italy . . . we watched all of her shows, saw a couple other shows and rode some of the best roller coasters i have ever been on! the griffon was my favorite ever ~ it totally felt like you were flying :)

this is england . . .

walking into italy ~ cami's theatre is just ahead

gotta get dippin' dots at a theme park :)

this is kinetix ~ seriously one of the coolest shows ever, kind of an acrobatic show!

this is cami's boy, zach winningham {i just found this profile online ~ so for all you nosy ppl who want to know more :) hehe!}

he is a total cutie and he plays his guitar and sings in ireland at the irish pub in busch gardens. we went and saw him at the pub and at cheeseburger in paradise later that night. he really is way talented! him and cami are totally cute. :)

this is a little video we took while in the pub! :)

washington, dc

we finally made it to virginia at like 1am and crashed at cami's apartment. :) we were so happy to finally be there. cami greeted us at the airport with a plate of homebaked cookies! she is so cute and was just as excited as we were!

the next morning, thursday, was cami's day off, so we headed to dc to see some sights {kind of appropriate on the 24th of july}

this is at arlington cemetery ~ jfk's grave.

on the little tour bus through the cemetery

being patriotic in front of the national archives! haha

the washington monument ~ very cool

the whole walk from washington monument, by the reflection pool, to the lincoln memorial was our highlight of the day! it was such a nice day, not too humid and not too hot! and such a beautiful walk. . .

haha . . . this was cami's idea. this is on the ground on the steps of the lincoln memorial . . . i thought it was pretty clever ;)

these are some more fun highlights of the day: we saw the constitution, bill of rights, declaration of independance, vietnam memorial, ford's theatre, the house where lincoln died, the changing of the guard at the tomb of the unknown soldier

visiting cami in VA

so all the older gals in our fam {me, amy and my mom} decided to take a trip to visit my cute, performer of a sister, cami out in virginia, where she has a job performing at busch gardens for the summer! we were so excited to take this fun girls trip!

day 1 and 2 of the trip were mostly made up of traveling which was good and bad. good because the first day, me and my mom got to fly up to provo in this amazing private jet that our friend, dave, was flying up and said he had room for us! so we left a little earlier than expected so we could ride with him! so fun!

i totally got to be co-pilot! {look at how nice that plane is!}

just after we landed in provo

then we stayed the night at amy's {i was teaching her kids "down by the banks." they were so cute playing it with me}

the next day was our day flying {standby}!!! AAAHHHH! slight nightmare trying to get flights and we ended up in the atlanta airport all day!!! so dumb. but we were still smilin!

this is what we did to entertain ourselves ~ we were laughing pretty hard, cause those are some ugly faces we made! i added one of cami cause that's who we were going to see!

mystery canyon

decided to go for a fun canyoneering hike this weekend . . . i forgot how long this one took. we were hiking for 8 hours!! yeah, i'm a little bit sore today :) you have to hike 4+ miles up switch backs on the observation point trail just to get to the trailhead for mystery canyon . . . just me, cody and leah went.

it got sorta hot so cody and leah decided to hike in their underwear . . . haha, they are going to hate me for posting this, but i thought it was such an awesome picture. this is on one of the switchbacks up observation point.

cool canyon shots!

me and cody, setting up a big, scary rappel :)

me ~ going down that rappel . . . this is where the natural spring starts to come out of the canyon walls! so beautiful!

me and leah!

the final rappel into the narrows at zion!

as always too many cool pictures not to post them . . . :)

pretty close ups of flowers on the trail . . .

amazing sky as we were driving home :) great day!

happy birthday shane!!

sunday was shane's birthday and i wanted to make him a fun birthday breakfast . . . i know it's nerdy but i did. i actually did this all on saturday, 'cause i thought he was going out of town on sunday. anyway, for some reason i was feeling extra creative that day . . . i tried out an idea that i found on a blog somewhere a while ago: a bacon plate. :) simply weave and bake/broil it in the oven until it's as crispy as you like it!

here is the finished product! haha

then since shane doesn't like cake . . . i made an ice cream cake out of ice cream sandwiches, then made it look like a golf course, cause he likes to golf . . . i know, nerdy, but it was really yummy and super easy to make!

blowing out the candles! we were outside underneath water misters so that's why there are droplets everywhere. :)

happy birthday babe! i hope you enjoyed your day!