Jenna wanted to go shopping today for my early birthday. She goes on these marathon shopping trips and as much as I love shopping I can never keep up with her. I get bored about half way through. We tried on a look of cute clothes and I found a new scent I love. I picked up a new model to replace Josphine. I’m sad she had to go but I know that’s how it goes with models and the new girl seems like she has some good potential. Jenna took me to this restaurant called Rumbi Grill for an early birthday dinner. The food is pretty good but I really like the atmosphere. I told her about how I had got a $40 discount on my car emission/inspection and registration earlier today because the guy in the shop was Samoan and he thought it was really funny that I could peg him as an American Samoan and carry on a conversation with him in his language. She knows some Samoan so that got us started on this joke telling thing and the people around us were looking at us like we were nuts because we couldn’t stop laughing. There was a Hawaiian guy a few tables over who stopped to chat. My Hawaiian is a little rusty but I was still able to have a small conversation with him. I really need to move to an island because I miss these languages so much. I rarely see Hawaiians, Tongans, or Samoans anymore so I don’t get to speak the languages. Brooke says we are going to the poly festival this year so at least I’ll get to go chat with some people there. She’ll be yelling “WHAT TIME ARE WE GOING HOME?”  the whole time because that’s all she knows how to say in Samoan lol I tried teaching Matt once but he insisted on saying Ua ta la instead of ua ta le so I had to change the sentence and it ended up being “you talk too much!” That’s all he knows how to say now, and he can’t say it without getting into trouble

After dinner Jenna had to get home so I met the boys over at Fat cats for bowling. I saved to baby kittens from the freeway on my way over there. They were adorable. I didn’t keep them. Bowling was fun but we pretty much talked about girls the whole time. Matt was acting fidgety so I think something is up but I’m not sure what yet…

It has been such a hectic day! We were supposed to go to the zoo early this morning but again, guess who was being slow?! I was ready right on time and 3 hours later we were just pulling up to Matt’s to leave for the zoo. Alexa, Jenna, Ari, Shay, and me had all crammed into one car so Matt was going to drive the jeep. Whenever someone has to ride in the jeep it always ends up being me. That’s ok though. I’m a jeep kind of girl. I want one someday. It was over 100 degrees (literally) so the zoo was way hot at first. Thankfully they have these little water mister things but it was still pretty bad. We saw the baby elephant and the rhino came right up the window to see us. I got to the otter tank and we had to stay a minute. They are so cute! When I see an otter I’m like that girl from Despicable Me when she sees a unicorn. I love them so much! After the otters Alexa practically ran to the polar bear enclosure because Rizzo just got a new swimming pool and she is obsessed with polar bears. The new Rocky Shores exhibit is amazing. I wish I lived there. It inspired a bunch of stories within the first five min. of being there. They hav bald eagles sam and betsy, the freakin adorable otters nick and nellie, the grizzly bears koda, lou lou, and I forget the other ones name, rizzo the polar bear and the sea lions maverick, and big guy, hudson the seal...so many cute animals. Rizzo is a big show off. If she sees people sitting by a certain window she’ll dive underwater and swim right past them or swim and pop up right at the window in front of all the little kids. I put a video of her doing it on my youtube

Youtube.com/untamedandijames

We saw the giraffes and a cute little skunk curled up in his blanket. I don't know what it is about sleeping skunks but I love them. Maybe it's their pink noses or soft little smiles. Ah, so cute. I saw the wolves for the first time at the zoo. They are always hiding when I go. I love them! When I was younger wolves were my favorite animals. I was obsessed with them! I had wolves on everything and I did one of those adopt a wolf things every year where you donate money to save them and you get a picture and stuff. I should do that again….

Anyway, it got overcast so it felt good and the animals really came out. The zoo was fun but I had to rush home because I was late for a dinner meeting. We went to this nice place called Tepanyaki. The tables are huge because they have a grill thing right there built in to the table. The cook comes out and makes the food right there in front of you. He was throwing knives around and he made a fire so big I thought he was going to burn my eyebrows off. He even made a flaming volcano out of an onion. I don’t know how you make an onion spout flames like a blow torch but he did it. The food was really good. At the end the cook was throwing shrimp at everybody to catch with their mouths. I told him I couldn’t catch but he threw it to me anyway. It zipped right past me and smacked into the wall. Then it fell on the floor next to the cooler. :-/ fail!

I got a new phone as a birthday present. I have a love/hate relationship with it right now. I hate that I don’t know how to use it and it has already caused me more than a few embarrassing moments in the short time that I have had it. On the flip side I love that it does so many things and I think it will be really useful once I figure out how to use it. So if you get in weird texts, files, pictures, etc. or you call and I can’t seem to find the right button to answer don’t be annoyed. I’m not avoiding you, I just don’t know how to use a phone that doesn’t have an antennae on it

It was a kick back kind of day so I went over to Lexa’s to see what she was doing. Jenna ended up coming over with my niece so we had a mini party. When we were kids we used to play this game called bulldozer where everyone lays down in a line and you make up different moves like the Panda and the Whale or the steam roller and you roll, stomp, cart wheel, etc. across/over everyone. It’s a pretty simple game but it was all we could play when we were supposed to be in bed sleeping and all of our toys were locked in the toy room. Nick was recording the whole thing because it was my niece’s first time playing. Then Sam came over with her dog Petey. He snorts a lot so he scared the baby at first but then we told her he was snoring so she thought it was pretty funny. She was really excited because she gets to sleep over at Alexa’s house in her own bed. Jenna had to work in the morning so she ended up leaving before Sam and I rode with her. I miss hanging out with those guys. They were way fun when we were kids.

Alexa knocking the baby into the water face first

As a mix of me and Nick’s early birthdays we all went boating. Sean, Deb, Shane, Alexa, Nick, Shay, Jenna, Hector, my niece, Brooke, Andy, and Matt were all there. Nick went up early and we were supposed to meet him up there at 11. I was ready to go on time but Alexa was taking forever to get ready (as always). We didn’t even leave her house until 1. On the way there we saw a duck that someone had run over on the road. Shay was PISSED! It’s sad that a duck got squished but listening to her rant about it was hilarious. I wish I would have recorded it.

 When we got to the lake and found our spot the boys decided to go out boarding first. All the girls, except Deb, stayed on the beach. We were tanning for a while and went swimming. Brooke shoved the baby in the lake because she sucks with kids. Good luck to her future offspring We caught a fish with our hands and put it in a bucket because it wasn’t swimming very well and the waves were knocking it around. It started doing a little better after that. We taught my niece how to use the camera and the camera phones so she took a bunch of pictures of us. She’s not bad for a 3 year old lol When the boys got back the water was really choppy so we went tubing instead. Truthfully, I was a little relieved. After hitting my head while we were boarding in Lake Powell and throwing up I’m nervous to get back on my board. I know that’s stupid because it isn’t going to happen to me every time I am on a board but  I’m still being a baby about it. I won’t let it stop me next time though. I allowed myself to sit out once but I love wakeboarding so no more wussing out!

Taken by our 3 year old photographer

Shay tanning in the shade

Alexa and Shay best friends since 1997

He loves that hat. Lex HATES it! It blew off in the water and she was cheering because she thought it would sink....

             turns out it floats

Nick's nasty leg injury swelling up after he went boarding

We dug a big hole, then had her stand in it,  and buried her legs

she thought it was pretty cool

If only I could replace real clothes with bikinis....

but Happy Birthday to one of the best creations ever!

I went to a luau with grandma. There were a lot of other old ladies there. I was definitely the youngest in the room (minus the two newborns). I like spending time with my grandma though. She introduced me to her friends. Old people are so diverse. Sit in a room full of old people and talk to a handful of them and you’ll see what I mean. There was a lady named Jonnie ( I have never heard of a girl named Jonnie before) who just totaled her car in an accident. She has never been to Hawaii and she moved here from Florida. She talked a lot about how many times she had moved during her life (over 16) and raising kids. The doctor’s wife had stories about the town. Their perspective is just so much different from the younger people. I like it though. They had a "get to know you" game where everyone answered 2 questions about themselves so I got to learn a lot about them. Old people are fun.

Photo courtesy of: Phoenix

Matt wanted to go to Causey and I had a free day so I decided to go. I miss being by the lake even though we JUST got home from Lake Powell. I haven’t been to Causey in a few years so I forgot it smells really fishy. Swimming there is pretty fun but the water is really cold in some spots. I was being a baby about getting in so Jimmy pretended he was going to push me and I jumped right in. I forgot to mention to them that I don’t really know how to swim so Kasy got a front row seat to my mini spaz out moment right after I jumped in lol I like Causey ok because it doesn’t have tiger muskies in it, but I get really creeped out when I go there. People are always dying there so I was picturing dead bodies floating around the entire time and I totally freaked myself out There were some drunk girls that were jumping off of rocks and one had her nipple pop out. She didn’t notice it but as she walked past all of us saw it. We wondered if we should say something but Jenn was too embarrassed and I didn’t care. I’m a jerk like that sometimes. This girl didn’t look like she was any sort of prude so I figured she probably didn’t care that it was out anyway. The boys went cliff diving. I might have given it a shot if I hadn’t been imagining running into dead bodies in the under currents. I really have to stop watching the news when stories come on about the lakes around here or I’ll never swim again lol On the way back to the other side of the dam I got to ride in the kayak with Matt. I was really nervous that I was going to sink it since it is made for one person but we made it. I was rocking us all over the place though. Jimmy decided to ride back in the jeep with us so the boys were listening to music and jamming out at the top of their lungs :-/ Oh, and I saw a moose!

Harlie and Brooke in their (really Andy's) jerseys

I have been on the road a lot and just got home from the Lake so there wasn't a lot of time to prep for Canada day this year. Brooke followed tradition and started everything off by singing her newest version of the Canadian national anthem. You can see that here

youtube.com/untamedandijames

Then we played some street hockey. I forgot to get the hockey sticks so we had to settle for noodle hockey. It's really hard to play hockey with a noodle. We had more noodle fights than goals. After that we ate and had our fire. There was the traditional dumb dance move contest, fireworks, and chalk art. For being as unprepared as we were we had a pretty good time.

Happy Canada Day

That's Jenna's version of a maple leaf on my face

Fights breaking out

Giving grams a tattoo

A guy in a pink shirt holding 2 $1 bills

Getting kicked by a stranger

planking

planking attempt

Don't try this at home

shoes hanging from a telephone wire

pretending to be pregnant

The boys in their homemade fort

The girls showin off their grills

Team piggy back rides on the beach

lost in the desert

sand angels

water ballet

Brooke trying to pretend she is in a cave

Jenna with a life jacket full of jewelry

me and Brooke tresspassing to cross "climb the witch rocks" off her list

Newlywed target practice with Brooke and Andy

Harlie wakeboarding

Brooke being weird in a hole

He is a member of the he man woman haters club

trying out my swyt culture ballet flats from the lounge. They are great for the beach

Jenna and Shay getting ready to race

Jenna and Andy getting ready for the castle competition

getting attacked by my little ninja niece

night swim