our little family.

had a really wonderful thanksgiving weekend. we ate a delicious meal (and triumphed over the mashed potatoes we made, thanks to pw) with my family on thursday and then headed to the cabin on friday. we kept warm with our smart wool socks, sweaters and the space heater in our bedroom, we watched a few movies and a lot of sports, the boys cut down a christmas tree, the girls cooked and talked and cooked some more  and we all decorated the christmas tree and made the cabin look festive. it was the perfect way to welcome december.

and thanks to jennie, who took all of these pictures for me, since i was nuts and forgot my camera! there are more cute pictures on her blog.

only YOU can prevent forest fires!

date: july 3rd 2010
time: 9:00 pm
place: olsen family cabin
event: g almost burns down forest (not really, but these pictures are funny)

i documented the event as follows:

g grabs a lighter, walks outside and lights an enormous pile of junk of fire.

fire quickly reaches 7 feet tall and g does a little fire dance to celebrate his triumph (not kidding, wish i had my camera out fast enough to prove it)

me & heidi watch from the window and laugh uncontrollably

big brother erik sees what is happening and runs outside...

erik: what are you doing? 

g: i just lit all this stuff on fire...

erik: well, that was a really bad idea...

erik: don't you know this is how forest fires start?!

g: the ground is wet, it's not going to start a forest fire

erik: alright, well i guess now we get to put it out.

g fans the flames while erik brings the hose over to put out giant fire. 

fire is distinguished and animals and trees are safe. 

for now.

pretty eventful evening!

summer nights.

here are just a few photos from our weekend at the cabin. i obviously didn't take very many pictures, which explains why all of these are from the same night and basically consist of me following around little makayla with my camera. she is one olsen who is always happy to smile for me!

we had a good couple of days barbecuing, chatting, taking walks, making smores by the fire and watching the pups wrestle. and i have to admit, besides all the fun with family, my favorite part of the weekend might have been the 3 hour nap i took with my love on sunday after church. even if we did get teased by everyone else when we woke up just in time for dinner, it was definitely worth it.  looking forward to lots more summer nights spent just like this...

zions.

hello friends! i'm home from a little weekend getaway i took with a few of my brothers and my mom. my dad was supposed to join us, but he got a phone call from work halfway through the drive and had to turn around when they told him that the stock market had dropped almost 900 points. we were sad he had to go back, but decided to venture on without him.

my little brother, scotty, is home from his mission, so we decided to take him on a little trip during mine and jon's break between semesters and zions was the place we chose. i'd never been before & thought it was gorgeous, but i was a little unprepared for the hike we did while we were there. a lot of you have probably hiked angel's landing, but this was my first time. i'd heard that the hike is so steep that you have to hold onto chains at the top in order to keep from falling off the cliff, so it took a little coaxing from my brothers to convince me to do it. it was worth it. definitely one of the scariest, hardest and prettiest hikes i've ever done. and no one died. bonus!

we were so happy and exhausted after almost 3 hours of not-stop climbing. my calves were on fire. but it was such a cool experience and i loved doing it with those boys. they take such good care of me-always making sure i was hydrated and climbing up every tricky spot first so they could pull me up after them or give me a hand down. my mother raised really good boys.
we also visited a petting zoo where we got to feed elk & bison by hand. jon maybe even kissed one, but let's not talk about it.

 the rest of the trip was great. we played outside, layed by the pool, ate at tons of cute little cafés, got gelato, read in the sunshine and just enjoyed being together again. i love my family and i couldn't be more proud of my scotty.

the end.

spring break in the sunshine.

hello! how was your weekend?

last week was spring break for me and i must say, it was a fabulous time. sleeping in doesn't suck and heading off to vegas on a whim doesn't either. jon, meg & i decided to skip out on the snow and head for the sunshine for a little getaway and we had a blast. we successfully snuck into 2 pools, won no money gambling, found $60 on the ground, decided to be honest and ask if the $60 belonged to the girls sitting nearby, were shocked when they responded with "nope" and then put ALL of the money in their purse, tried to work up the nerve to insist they split it with us, didn't work up the nerve, ate too much gelato, shopped every single day, looked at architecture with jonny, ran away from far too many drunk college students, watched drunk college students fall over at the pool at mgm, laid in the sunshine, stalked kendra wilkenson and holly madison and met hank baskett.

how was your week?

ps. i have pictures of all of this, but unfortunately, my computer isn't letting me upload them today. shame on you, computer.

cabin fever.

highlights:

• lots of time to chat 
• good girl time with heidi, jennie & kiersti
  
• cute annie crawling
• yummy french toast with fresh french bread and strawberries
• fresh avocado for lunch
• not drinking as much diet coke as usual...an improvement!
• down dog in the living room
• building a sweet princess castle with lo's blocks
• blowing bryan's lame princess castle out of the water
• dancing to katy perry in the basement
• recording the boys dancing to katy perry in the basement
• hysterically laughing with kiersti all of saturday night
• falling down in the kitchen due to laughing too hard
• wearing my pajamas for 2 straight days
• not a stitch of makeup
• staying up til midnight just talking
• baking brownies with kiersti and realizing we didn't have any vegtable oil
• substituting melted butter for vegetable oil
• eating pure butter brownies 
• dying of a heart attack immediately after

lowlights:

• g mooning me on camera while dancing to katy perry in the basement
• stomach cramps from hell

the good far outweighed the bad. we had an awesome weekend. thanks to those of you who joined in the fun. xo.