Summer 2009 part 2

This summer I have had the great fortune to spend a lot of fun time with my family, which has included several family vacations with my dad's side of the family. The first of these vacations was a week in June that we spent at a Beach House in Ventura. We have gone to this same house for years and I have so many great memories there! Every other year my aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins meet up for a week of fun and relaxation. This year there were 60+ people occupying two levels, so it was a bit cozy, a bit crazy, and full of adventures!

The week was spent enjoying the ocean and the sand, laughing and catching up with family, lots of duels in Tetris Attack on the classic Super Nintendo, birthday parties, plenty of entertainment provided by my adorable little cousins with their fashion show and talent show, and just relaxing. I love my family so much! You may think that over 60 people inside this one Beach House sounds too crazy and that it wouldn't be very fun for a week, but it was amazing! My family is so great, we all get along so well and just LOVE getting together!

One of my favorite parts of the week was the Family Home Evening that we had together with everyone. All of us were crowded together downstairs and we talked about how the tradition of going to the Beach House started, about my amazing Grandparents Eugene Grant Morris and Alice Jean Morris, and then we went through all of the family there and made sure that the little kids knew who belonged to which family [my dad is one of 9, so you can see how it would get confusing for the little kids :) ] I loved listening to everyone share memories and express their love for this family. I am so blessed with such an incredible extended family!!

And I must express my gratitude to my Uncle Wade who did a HUGE favor for me in being the middle man for me and mailing my letters off to Scott during the week at the Beach House :) I really appreciated his willingness to deliver that precious cargo for me. [There ya go Wade! I told you I wouldn't forget to give you your due credit!]


Family vacation number two was a week in July where a smaller group of us stayed on a Houseboat on Lake Powell for a little over a week. This is my favorite vacation! My family does this every year. There used to be a much larger group, and we would stay on two houseboats, but over the years less and less people come so this year there was only 13 of us at the most. We had a great time playing Wizard and Yahtzee, reading books, and of course going out on the on the lake to have fun with the boat. My Aunt and Uncle Murdock have a timeshare on this houseboat, Ed's Fun Time, and they also have a very nice speed boat supplied with skis, wakeboards, tubes, and a banana boat. We are so grateful for Amy and Mike for all that they do for us and their kindness. This vacation would not be possible without them and all their hard work for us :)

I had a great time wakeboarding, wake surfing, and playing with the "inflatables" - especially with our new-found fun "banubing" where we have the banana being pulled behind the boat between the two tubes and we do crazy maneuvers and jump from one inflatable to another. Thankfully we didn't have any big injuries this year, just some blisters and of course faceplants. I also really enjoyed reading at Lake Powell. This year I read over 3 books, and I know that my aunts read even more than me. Lake Powell is a great combination of fun and relaxation in a gorgeous location with amazing family members- what's not to love? :)


I am still battling with my pealing skin after getting a little bit sun-burned at Lake Powell, but I still have a pretty good tan, so we'll see how long this lasts... ;)

Besides these great vacations I have enjoyed playing with my nephews and my adorable niece a lot. I went to a couple of Jethawks Baseball games with my family, one with Ethan for his first baseball game, and another with Ethan and Tai for Tai's first baseball game. It was so fun to watch them as they would watch the game and look for the mascots walking around. Ethan loved going up to Kaboom and Stealth the Jethawks' mascots and giving them high-fives and hugs- it was adorable! At the stadium they have a grassy area off to the side with a bounce house and a huge slide for the kids to play on, so we spent a lot of time over there too. It was great to spend that time with my family and enjoy my nephew's first times at a baseball game!


Currently I am done with all my trips and plans so I am just working, enjoying being with my family, and being a bum before heading back up to school in a few weeks. My time is also spent writing letters to Scott and watching the tv show ALIAS on dvd. I absolutely love that show and was obsessed with it when it was on tv, so I am enjoying remembering all the things I loved about it now. I just finished season 1 and hope to finish all 5 seasons before heading back to school. If you are ever in need of something good to watch I recommend this show :)

*updated on 8-2-09 with larger collages