IT'S MY MAMA'S BIRFDAY.

Today is mi madre's birthday, which deserves a dedicatory blog post.

On Mia, the first horse I leased. My mom likes paint horses because she likes to think she's a cowgirl.

Skiing at Sundance with Dad. I'm her favorite daughter because I'm the best skier of my sisters. Last winter, she called Beau to go skiing with her when my dad was sick. Just Beau and Mom. What a cute date.

My parents are Appalachian Trail fanatics. They hiked 12 miles on Thanksgiving day.


Sometimes they let me go with them.

It's fun to have a mom that is so exercise and health oriented. She goes to the gym 6 times a week, always takes the stairs, initiates family walks/bike rides, and takes walks on her lunch breaks at work. One time she walked the 6 miles home from my high school because my dad wanted to finish watching the homecoming game.

Showing off her orange peeling skills.



I think this is my favorite picture of my mom (taken by Page when my mom was visiting their Wymount apt) because it simultaneously shows her compulsion to organize other people's things and Page's bag collecting habits.



I don't know any other girls my age that share clothes with their mom- not only are we the same size, but she has great taste in clothes. It comes in really handy.

Happy 55th, mother!

rip toby and other halloween events

Beau=golfer. Or 1940's person. Or Newsies boy.
And I'm a puppy!

First stop on our Halloween tour: my english teacher's house. She has the tradition of making doughnuts for the neighborhood/ward (since they are the same thing in Utah) on Halloween. I'm not even a doughnut fan, but they were way good. The garage was a makeshift bakery to cook the 1,000 doughnuts and tables were set up with powdered sugar, regular sugar, glazes, etc.

Next was Spencer and Aly's annual Halloween bash (shown as the old couple on the right). I have fun cousins. And Aly is the best hostess ever.


In other, more saddening news...

In January of 2007, my dear roommate Kate and I brought home a new addition to our dorm, Toby. We had been preparing for our new arrival by polluting the snow with the contents of a free lava lamp from Wells Fargo Bank and filling it with nice clean water for our new friend.













Unfortunately, we got the wrong kind of water conditioner (even though I worked at PetSmart for 3 years? Fail.) and he died in a few hours.


But then we got a NEW Toby, a much better Toby, and he followed us around all over Provo until he passed away this morning in Kate's home. It must be noted that he survived through 10 different homes, several traumatic water changing experiences (that lava lamp had a narrow opening), neglect while Beau had him summer semester, and many minutes out of water and on Katie Smith's kitchen floor while she freaked out that she had dropped him.

Rest in peace, Toby. He was a good little fish.