The Berkley's

Can you even believe it? I found another Berkley! First time in my life I've met somebody with my name. AND it's spelled the same. Instant Best Friend status. We're unstoppable.

Too bad we didn't have a real camera, these are just phone pics...

Weirdees? Sure, I guess I'll take it.

Family.... love them. And I love our crazy family pictures.

3 months till I get to go home for Christmas! The countdown begins...

home sweet home

Oh my goodness... what a beautiful sight. My backyard in Montana :)

Props go to Mohita for taking such a gorgeous pic.

2 Important Lessons Learned

Today has been quite enlightening at work. Here are two important lessons that I learned that you might find interesting:

I have a bad habit of cracking my knuckles on occasion. You know, its just something I’ve picked up--my whole family does it.

Anyways-today, I happened to do it in front of a man from Tonga. He commented on it, telling me that he read a Readers Digest article once about how cracking knuckles doesn’t cause an increase in knuckle size and that people in Tonga, both men and women, crack their knuckles all the time thinking it limbers up their fingers.
Take that life! Especially to my friend, whom I will leave unnamed, that fights with me all the time about who has the better bad habit. She thinks her habit is better, which is picking at her split ends. Mine is so much more convenient. Mess free and so easy-even a blind person could do it.

I think I win, especially after my Tongan co-workers input.

The second lesson I learned today comes from Jeremiah 24:2, which reads:

“One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.”

So friends, please. Next time your fruit goes bad, please call it naughty.

We Shot the Moon/Parachute/Secondhand Serenade video

Here's the video I was trying to add to the last post... of, you know, me entertaining myself.

For your enjoyment.

We Shot the Moon/Parachute/Secondhand Serenade and Lagoon

Last weekend I went to another concert... wahoo! Except I wasn't too into this one... here are a few pictures of the group entertaining ourselves. haha

The concert was at thanksgiving point, so we all sat on blankets and were 1,000 yards away from the bands. urgh. And the weekend before I had gone to see Jack's Mannequin, so nothing would have compared anyways.... you think I kid, but I would never.

Another reason I wasn't too into the concert is because we had gone to Lagoon earlier that day and I was still recovering from the affects of taking 2 Dramamine pills. So worth it though. Lagoon was a blast!!

Berkley + Dramamine = unstoppable.

Wicked? Bring it on. White roller coaster? Bring it on. Pirate ship? Bring it on (although the pirate ship still kind of got to me... dang little kid ride). haha. I even went on the waterslides and I hate waterparks... I almost started enjoying myself the 3-4 time going down the waterslide. Why, you ask, did I go on the waterslides if I hate them so much? Because I didn't want to be stuck at the bottom, like a mom, watching my friends come out.

Anywho-back to the concert. Here is a video I took to entertain myself. Which I will try to upload again....

Jack's Mannequin and The Fray

I LOVE JACK'S MANNEQUIN! There, I said it...

This concert was amazing. I was in 100% heaven the whole time. Pure bliss.... Yes, that's what Jack does to me. In fact, I'm listening to Jack as I type. :)

Um, anyway. Enough about my love for Jack. Here are some pics! All my pictures stunk, so I stole these from my friend that was in the pit. muahaha

JACK!!

I went with my buddy Mark, his sister Jamie,

and their friend Jessica. Awesome people.

Me and Marko

The Fray! I never really listened to them before the concert

so I wasn't as into them as Jack. But now I listen to them everyday...

LOVE THEM.

Their songs are what I'd like to call pure music:

incredible lyrics, great vocals, great band.

MAE

My roommate Jennifer and I went to a Mae concert a few months ago! I actually forgot I even went until she gave me pictures a few weeks ago. Awkward...

I guess I've seen them so often that their concerts all roll into one. Who knows. haha
Or my Alzheimer problem is kicking in.

Me and Jen-dont mind our awkward faces, please.

These next 2 photos are from previous concerts....

All the pics that I took at this latest concert looked horrible

so I thought I'd rehash a few good old ones. :)

Parachute + Windsor Drive + Channel 2

My roommate Jennifer is a producer for Channel 2. This morning they had Parachute on their show!! She got to meet them and asked if they could get me their autographs since I like their music. What an awesome roommate! And too bad they spelled my name wrong, but hey--its the thought that counts, right?

A month ago the band Windsor Drive came and performed on Channel 2,

so Jennifer got their number....
That night after their concert at the Avalon, Jen asked if they wanted to

go get some pizza with us girls.

They came... and let me tell you, what a crazy night we had. haha

Their music isn't too bad either-check them out.

From left to right

bass, Kimmi, Jen, Me, Lead Singer, Drums, Guitar, Keyboard.

Fame hasn't quite hit these kids yet, so it felt like we were just hanging out with

a bunch of goofy, down to earth guys.

Good times.

Just a glimpse of the craziness we encountered...

I think this is when their drinks kicked in.

The Life of a COB employee

The other day I looked down at the floor in my bedroom, saw all my work shoes on the floor, and had to laugh. Oh the life of a Church Office Building employee....

Speaking of work.... it will be my 1 year anniversary on August 1st! wahoo! Go me.

Sapphire Mining-4th of July

I'm still waiting to get pictures back from friends on a few recent fun-times I've had, so I thought I would do a filler blog entry on what I would have done on the 4th of July... these are pics from my family going to Skalkaho Falls and the Sapphire mines, our yearly 4th of July tradition.

p.s. thanks go to my sister-in-law Alyssa. I stole these pictures from her facebook. aww what's family for? :)

Skalkaho Falls

And again, Skalkaho Falls

Sapphire Mining!! WOOT.

First, you have to put dirt in a screen- and swish it around in the water.

It's actually takes a bit of talent-you have to get all the dirt lined up perfectly in the middle.

(it makes the heavy stuff (sapphires) sink to the bottom of the tray)

Then, you have to flip it over...

if you did it right, the sapphires 'should'

be right at the top of the pile, ready to go.
Most of the time though, you have to dig around...

We seriously have loads of sapphires at our house.

Good times.

Maybe next 4th of July I'll head home and do the hunt for sapphires...

Alyssa and Moriah showing off their BUFF arms. :) haha

No, but seriously, they're buff.

Birthday's all around

It was Jerason's birthday (Nitnoo's husband) on June 10th, so I went with the Boyce's to help celebrate! We went to dinner at Chili's and we had to get a picture with the sign... HILARIOUS. I love it when places make funny signs.

Jerason decided that his birthday-day is bad luck. June 10th is the day Hayley broke her leg, the day Nitnoo almost drowned, then this year June 10th was the day that both Nitnoo and Hayley were sick (throwing up sick), Merralee slammed her finger in the door so it was bleeding, I sliced my finger at work so I had to get a tetanus shot, and while we were at Chili's, the waiter dropped the plates and spilled food on Courtney! (so funny....) So yes, I agree with Jerason- June 10th is bad luck day. haha

Quarter of a Century!?!!

Kate was so kind to make me a fantabulous birthday cake on June 7th. I even got to pick it out and everything. Lemon cake with vanilla (with sprinkles) frosting. mmmhmm

Thanks Kate!

Courtney came over to help us eat it. We wanted to eat the whole thing in one sitting, but after 3 pieces we were feeling a bit icky...

This pic is slightly awkward of all 3 of us, but it was such a cool picture

(you know, with the cool 25 in the front) that i decided to post it.
Me with my b-day cake! We were too excited to eat it, so we put the frosting on a bit premature... and it started melting off and pooling at the edges. haha

Moriah's weekend

I went home to Montana this weekend for Moriah's State track meet and High School graduation. I love going home! I'll just say I have the coolest family ever. It's a tough one to beat.

Saturday was Moriah's track meet and we were there ALL DAY. Pretty exciting times (besides the fact that I got fried like no other). Hamilton (the town I'm from) has a pretty amazing track team. Moriah was in the 1600 relay (4 girls, each girl does a 400), and they ended up with 3rd place for that event. Moriah ended up PR'ing (doing your best ever) for her run even though her dang shoe was coming off! haha poor girl. Maybe next time she should get shoes that don't have laces. Do they make velcro cleats? jk...

The other girls on the Hamilton track team did really well, too-so the girls team ended up taking 2nd place overall at state. woot!

Here are some pics from her graduation and track meet:

Her with some friends. I think the theme for these grads this year was being a "creeper". jk

(that was the kid's goal who was sticking his head in the pic)

Mo with Grammer


Mo with Mom and Dad

Hands down my favorite picture this year.

Naomi jumped in the picture while they were taking a pic of Moriah.... haha

Moriah with one of her relay team members, Misha Trotter.

No laptop = New Show

Ever since my laptop died I’ve had some spare time lately (no more hulu episodes… no more music… no more facebook/gmail chatting, etc). And sometimes, that spare time means I have nothing better to do than sit down and watch some good, old-fashioned TV once in a while. Oh, and read. : )

The past couple weeks I’ve enjoyed watching ‘Jon and Kate plus 8’ episodes. Basically the only reason I watch it is because those kids are so dang cute! I don’t know what’s so addicting about watching sextuplets on TV, but the addiction is definitely there. And I’ve come to grow sympathetic towards Jon because Kate is the bossiest lady alive (and anybody that knows me knows my aversion towards bossy people). If she only learned to have a different tone to her voice, or say ‘please’… life would be so much better for them.

But anywho-enough about the show. Here’s a pic of the cutest kids ever!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Today is Grammer's 89th BIRTHDAY!!

Wahoo!

The girls

Just thought I would share my new favorite picture, at the moment. Good times.
All of the Hughes girls doing what we do best.

Mr. and Mrs. Hughes

The Mr. and Mrs.

Alyssa's sister, my 2 sisters and my 2 lil cousins

Alyssa with Jordan's boys

The Hughes girls

Jordan with his boys

Alyssa and her bridesmaids

The original Hughes kids at the wedding dinner friday night

Springtime on Temple Square

Temple square is gorgeous right now. It's seriously amazing. Here are a few shots I took on my way home one night after work:

Yay for babies!

Elizabeth Dawn Camp. Born march 9, 2009

The happy new 'aunt' :)

My best friend Rachel (that I grew up with in MT) had her baby!!! Sorry this picture is so blurry, but this is awkwardly the only picture I have of me and Rach together. meh