Kambri Came to Canada

My brother and his girlfriend and also my best friend love me so much they came all the way to Canada for my birthday. 

That there is love!

Jk they didn't really but it was nice that they were there for my birthday.

Thanks to Kambri I pretty much got a gift from everyone in my family, as in she got me enough gifts we could've given them each a part of it.

Although Becky did her own and made an Ice Cream cake for me...oh no wait, she made that for fathers day but then my Aunt had bought a real ice cream cake so then my birthday was second best. At least I got a cake

Return of the snake. She got me snake earings, a snake purse, a fake snake, dried papaya, the t-shirt game and a cute California frame with pictures from our trip in it. Sweetest girl ever.

 

 For my Birthday we hiked to Bertha Falls/Lake

This photo was our inspiration.

 

It almost looks like white sandy beaches.

 Yup this is the only one I have with my brother. Every other picture is either me with Kambri or him with Kambri. He is just so wanted and loved

That night we slept out on the tramp, but failed to take any pictures, but I'll have you know mitch and kambri can't handle a night out on the tramp. At 4:30 in the morning I wake up to this, "Chan, it's not your birthday anymore, so we are going inside" Me: NO DON"T DO IT. 

They never listened. I slept like a baby out there, I don't know what their problem was.

The next day we went down Kimball. Note to self, never go down a river when it's been raining for the last few weeks and temperatures have only been in the teens.

 Here is the raging river of death. Seriously, I got out of the car and saw how fast it was going and said there is no way I'm getting in that river unless we pray first. It usually takes about an hour and a halfish to make it to the cliffs. We got there in about 30 mins. That's how fast the river was going.

 Us pretending that we were having a great time. I'm surprised we could even smile. Seriously the water was only about 8 degrees (apparently 8 degree's and down is the temp for hypothermia to set in) My legs were soooo cold and stiff from not moving them I'm pretty sure that if I fell off my tube I would've just sunk. So scary, so exhilerating, so fun, and so stupid.

We jumped out of the river half way down because there was no way we could handle another hour.

And that about sums up my time with kambri and mitch.

I wish they'd come back soon.

It's my party

In honor of my 23rd birthday today, I decided to do a post on 23 random facts about me that you may or may not know and most of you probably don't care to know, but I'm doing it anyway! (it's my birthday I can do what I want to)

1. Like my mother, I take eggs out of the cartons in patterns making sure that it's always balanced. (We just discovered that we both do this yesterday, that's why it's number 1)

2. I call chap stick, lip chap and get teased for it all the time. I thought everyone in the world called it that up until I went to school and people started pointing it out. Maybe it's just a Canadian thing, or maybe my friends didn't want to offend me by correcting me. Well they just did me a great disservice let me tell you that.

3. I really love to sleep with the covers over my head. Usually people can't even tell I'm in bed because you can't see any part of me.

4. If there isn't food in my mouth then there is gum in my mouth. I always feel the need to be chewing something and go crazy when I run out of gum.

5. When I type on a keyboard I use my left hand properly but when I use my right hand I use mostly my pointer and middle finger. I don't know why especially when it comes to the space bar since my thumb is resting right on it.

6. I've never had an energy drink. Nor do I ever plan on having one.

7. Call my crazy but I've never seen any of the star wars or Lord of the Rings movies. And I've only seen Harry Potter 1,2,3, and 7. Don't hate me.

8. I don't like to apply my toothpaste directly to my tooth brush. If it's my own tube I put it straight on my tongue. If it's someone elses then I put it on my finger. By applying it on my tongue I figure it keeps other people from using my tube if they ever see me do it.

9. I don't like to set my alarm to be set on multiple of fives.

See what I mean. 8:03 9:04 2:07 7:11 2:27 and 4:11

10. When I get out bread whether it's to make a sandwich or a piece of toast 9 out of 10 times I bite the corner of the bread off to eat while I wait. Apparently I need some instant gratification for my hunger.

11. I really enjoy cinnamon. It's just the spice of life for me. I put it on my cereal, on my ice cream, in my yogurt, on my banana with peanut butter, in my my smoothies...you get the picture.

12. When I was a kid I was deathly afraid of linoleum. But only when I had bare feet.

13. I like ground beef but I don't like it in the 2 most common ways. I will not eat it in a taco/burrito/chimichanga or as a hamburger. I know that's the most common and loved way of normal people. When I'm in the states I blame it on being Canadian.

14. I can't drink milk plain. I don't like putting it up to my mouth cause it makes the glass smell funny and then I think that makes it taste worse.

15. I think I'm part of the 3% of the world that likes black licorice. Whether it's ice cream, jube jube's, jelly beans or the licorice it's self I will choose it over any flavor (Even red!). It works out great for me because nobody ever likes the black ones so more for me.

16. I color coordinate my closet. It makes finding what I want to wear so easy. I'm actually amazed that I actually keep it that way. Organization was never really my thing.

17. Its really hard for me to not have lotion on my hands. Even when I was young it drove me crazy. I remember in the 4th grade washing my hands, not having lotion to put on after and then I had to take a test. I kept licking the side of my hand because I didn't like the feeling of it rubbing against the paper and licking it just moistened it right up.

18. 50's and 60's music will always remind me of my dad and Texas. It was our number one thing to listen to on those long drives and we'd harmonize to the Everly Brothers "All you have to do is dream" and belt out "Build me up Buttercup" I still love the oldies and often choose to listen to them over other music. It's just so peepy, clean, and catchy. Win-win.

19. I love to look up meanings of words in the dictionary. Even if they are your common used words I still find it thrilling to look up the word and read all the definitions of it. Go ahead, call me a nerd. I won't even deny it.

20. I wash out my conditioner with cold water. I read once like 7 years ago that it was good for your hair and made it more smooth. So ever since then I think I can count on one hand how many times I've washed it with warm water.

21. I've only broken one bone and that was my arm when I was two.

22. I actually don't really like birthdays. My family was never birthday people, it's not uncommon for my parents to not even wish me happy birthday until the end of the night. And a family tradition is on your birthday you get a dairy queen cake. Usually mine always said Happy Birthday Chantel. Can you see why I don't love birthdays, or at least mine? JK.

23. Thank goodness I'm not any older. I've had a hard time coming up with these random facts. I don't even know what else to say about me besides that I'm 23 and I still feel like I'm 16 and I'm pretty sure I still look like I'm 14. I hope I feel and look this way for a LOOOONNNGGG time.

Happy Birthday to Me

 Okay well I've been home for about 3 weeks now but still am not finished with California.

But this will be my last one. 

Thank Goodness. 

Then maybe I'll actually write about someone else.

So our last weekend in Cali we went to Monterey again.

On the way down we stopped at the Oakland Temple.

AMAZING TEMPLE.

The grounds are so beautiful same with the inside.

The whole thing was just beautiful. 

 We went on a road called 17 mile drive. It's where 3 of the biggest golf courses are. Like PGA golf courses. So the houses on this road are huge and beautiful and worth millions. This is the view of many of the home owners. So jealous.

We had a picnic on the beach at sunset. Romantic right? Do not be deceived by the fact that we were in California and that it looks nice outside. It was freezing cold. And to make matters worse, look at that sunset! What the heck. I froze my butt off for that? I guess it's all about the experience or something.

 The last day was spent on the beach. Again, just because we were in our bathing suits does not mean it was nice outside. When the wind wasn't blowing it was nice. But when we got that ocean breeze it felt like winter. We pretty much didn't move from our towel.

Mitch did a good job of introducing me to a lot of his friends and we had a great time together. We went to the town Carmel. Full of nice little art galleries and gift shops.

We went to dinner at this cute little restaurant. Probably some of the best service ever and you know their food was good and expensive because the portion sizes could feed a mouse.  When they brought out our plates these words were spoken "I know I could comfortably eat dessert." Which we did! It was such a delicious meal. 

We tried to catch the sunset that night. TRIED is the key word. We were walking towards the beach and could see it going down. From where we were we could tell it was BEAUTIFUL. But as our luck would have it by the time we got down the the beach the sun went behind a piece of land that jutted out. So the sun set was finished. Didn't stop us from sitting up in a tree though and just admiring the ocean. But again, it was freezing! It blows my mind cause it's nice during the day but once 6 oclock hits it's like we go back a couple of months in time and it's January.

How often are you driving on the high way and have a guy dressed in green, on a matching green motorcycle, and pose for you. He gave us the pursed lip nod every time he or I drove past each other. Which was many times because we thought it was soo funny. He definitely gave us a good one for the camera.

And there you have it people. That was california.

sssssss

So it was a day that started out like any other.

We had just spent a couple of hours relaxing by the pool and the boys had just left for work.

Kambri and I were walking back to the apt to grab some grub when along the side walk we saw a snake.

I wanted to pick it up but was a little nervous and after standing there for a minute looking at it and it not moving anywhere I decided it must be dead. 

So I touched him and he was. (Real brave I know)

Then Kambri and I got a wicked and dastardly idea to hide it in one of the boys rooms.

Before we could do that we had an impromptu photo shoot.

I know it's a little gross playing around with a dead snake, but it was really funny and caused me to laugh so hard I cried about 5 times in an hour.

We happened to make the right guess about which boy would be most terrified of the snake in his room. We hid it underneath the bed like you see in the last picture. The boys got home at about 9:30 and went right into their rooms to change for the hot tubs. Kambri and I were on the edge of our seats waiting to hear a scream or something, but there was nothing... they left for the hot tubs without a word. We had her brother see if he could see the snake and he told us it was too well hidden.

So we re-situated it and sat on the edge of our seats again. This time we were not disappointed!

Eric went into his room and was in there for 3 minsish when he came RUNNING out of there yelling, "There is a snake in my room. GUYS THERE IS A SNAKE IN MY ROOM"

He proceeded to then say that in all of our faces like we couldn't hear him. 

Eric: At first I didn't see him, but when I did, I did a triple take because I was so shocked. I don't know what to do. Someone go in there and get him. Allen you are a big strong country boy you go in there at get him.

Allen: No way man I hate snakes (He could've been our victim as well apparently)

Eric: Alright guys, I'm going back in there.

(talking on the phone to his girlfriend): I don't know what to do about it, he's just sitting there, staring at me....No he's not moving at all.

At this point Kambri and I are in tears for the 8th time that day from laughing so hard. 

Eric: You two did this didn't you. What the heck, why would you do that. Is it dead, fake, real? WHAT IS IT.

Kambri: Well why don't we find out.

She then goes into his room and grabs it and chases him out of the house with it. He was sooooo distraught. He told us he would run all day from that snake.

Needless to say our plan was a success!

I only wish I had thought to set up a camera on the counter so that it could record the whole event without him knowing. It would've be youtube worthy.