GFR

This past week was the every other year traditional GFR (Glassett family reunion). What is the word for every other year? Biannual? Anyway, this year was a complete success. I thoroughly enjoyed catching up with all my cousins, aunts, uncles, cousins' spouses, and their children. It was awesome. My mom did a fantastic job of putting it all together and keeping everyone happy. That's why she's pretty much the most amazing person on this planet. :) GFR was filled with catching up, eating, hiking, enjoying the cool temperatures, eating, pictures, campfire with smores, and of course, more eating. It was great. I tried to upload pictures but my computer is being quite difficult. :( So, no pictures for now.

Today, my ward went on a temple trip to the Manti, Utah temple. It was really, really cool. The temple is gorgeous and it was a really good experience. As we were standing outside waiting for the rest of our group to make it guess who walked by!? Dallin H. Oaks. Yeah, the apostle. SO cool. And later we walked right past him as we went to the baptistry entrance. I could have reached out and touched him! In the baptistry there was a Spanish branch that had brought their youth to do baptisms so some of the priesthood only spoke Spanish. A few of our group got confirmed in Spanish. It was pretty cool. We were about to leave when the temple president came down to the baptistry. My mom and told me that he lived next door to her when she was a kid so I asked him if he remembered the Glassetts and that I was Carol Sue's daughter. He was so sweet! He got really excited and gave me a giant bear hug and told me how great my grandpa was and to give my mom a hug from him. So fun. Overall, a very fabulous Saturday. Life is good. :)

dry ice day.

As many of you [few] avid readers know, I work in a research lab. It is great, I love it SO much. Best thing that has ever happened to me at college. I am so lucky to work there. I recently learned I will be published on a few papers this year! SO stoked! My favorite days in the lab are when we get shipments that have to be kept frozen so, that means DRY ICE!!!! It's amazing. We make rockets, bombs, and today we ventured outside to try and make a very large bomb. It failed miserably but, it was still fun. Dry ice is incredibly entertaining and helps me remember just why I ADORE my job. That's all. :]

being American.

Hamburgers, hot dogs, soccer games, frisbee throwing, fireworks, and camping out on the side of the road for a parade. THIS is what the fourth of July is all about. The street outside my apartment is LINED with tents, tarps, air mattresses, blankets, and tons of families. It's pretty funny. The parade starts at 9 am tomorrow and people were allowed to start staking out their territory at 3 pm today. And they were there RIGHT at 3 as I was walking to eat lasagna with my ward. Crazy, crazy, crazy. We plan on watching from our balcony or driveway. Last night some friends and I had a barbeque and watched the fireworks from Stadium of Fire and heard faint snippets of Carrie Underwood and of course, threw frisbees and played a little ultimate. :) It was super fun. It took forever to get back to our apartment because of all the traffic but it was totally worth it. I feel pretty darn lucky to live in this incredible country and am extremely grateful for all the people who have sacrificed for our freedom. Go USA!

Also! Here are a few pictures from Portland :) (Again, I have put them in backwards order, oops)

Kendra and I at Multnomah Falls outside of Portland

They were SO pretty!! We hiked to the top :)

Me and the Portland skyline, right after we visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry.

Ben and me eating Voodoo doughnuts. They were delicious!

Me and a random statue in Pioneer square.

Contrary to what these pictures seem to show, we actually did listen to the talks I just didn't take any pictures of them. It was a really fun trip!

Happy Independence Day!!