June 17 - July 1 ... EUROPE!!!!!

Ok, since Europe is AMAZING. And I took, literally, 1000 photos, here's me summing it up in 10 photos and just a few paragraphs. If you want to see all the photos, they're all on

my facebook profile, if you don't have facebook, ask a neighbor

to assist you in your viewing needs, they have it.

It all begins in: The Beginning

We spent a day in England after landing. The next day we drove down to Versailles, near Paris, in France. We stayed in a super hoidy-toidy hotel there for a few nights. We spent a day viewing the Versailles palace where Louis the XIV-VXI lived up through the Fr

ench Revolution. We spent 8 hours there. Did two separate tours. And still didn't even begin to see everything. These French royalty types, man do they know how to live!

The Not So Beginning, But Not Even Near The Middle Of The Trip Bit

We drove from Versailles down to Southern France to visit some old family friends, Peter and Karen. Peter renovates super old and super cool houses and barns. So we stayed in their renovated, amazing, barn. They had 2 horses, Cody and Billy, and a swimming pool. The photos I took were amazing. It's such beautiful country. I literally cried when we had to leave. This is where I want to live, for forever. Ooooh, French country side, how I love you! The first photo is of Peter and Karen's house/renovated barn, and the second is a photo I took while driving out to the forest one day for some horseback riding/dinkidy-dooing.

The Middle, Oui!

Paris! We spent just under 3 days in Paris. The first day we saw most of the sights: Eiffel Tower, Musee D'Orsay, Notre Dame, Bastille ... we were so tired that night! We climbed up part way on the Eiffel Tower... 655 steps up, and 655 steps back down! But the view was spectacu

lar! My calfs were sore for days.

The second day in Paris was spent at the Louvre. We saw so many beautiful pieces of art. This is my favorite. The Winged Victory of Samothrace. Plus we saw the Mona Lisa. Pretty cool stuff!

More Of The Middle... The middle drug on for almost a week, ok?

Next up was Salisbury... Michelle's favorite Cathedral! Salisbury was beautiful. We drove up to Old Serum and played around on the ruins up there for a few hours. It was fun seeing some sights while being outside and allowed to be loud and run around, we're good at that. We took a lot of photos, a few naps in the grass, we're also good at that, and even cut a finger on one of the super old 12th century rocks. After that, we moved on.

We also saw The Stonehenge and then another not as famous Stonehenge. The not so famous one was cool because we got to frolic in and around the rocks, which was also fun. We took a lot of photos there, but again, we're doing this in just 10 photos, so bear with me there.

The Last Leg Of The Journey!

Sunday came, and since we spent the last one swimming and going to an open air market in France, we decided we'd make up for our sinning by going to church and then church history sights. We went to Dave and Grace's old ward and saw a lot of their friends. After a brief catching up lunch with friends we headed out to see Gadfield Elm, Benbow Farm, and Herefordshire Beacon. All three are important stops for us LDS folks. Here's a photo of Gadfield Elm... I even got to color a picture while I was there, awesome! I came here when I was 8, the last time I was in Europe, at that point it hadn't been restored and was missing a few walls, and well the roof, and such... so it was really amazing to see it restored!

It's The End, All Too Quickly Did It Come!
Our last two days were spent in London. We saw the Tower of London, and sweat to death. It was mid 90s the both days we were there. We'd be on the train, elbow to elbow, sweat to sweat, with a lot of strangers... and let me just say that for the record: American men smell a lot better than both English and French men.

Our last day was spend 1/2 at the British Museum looking at all the suite mummies and what not, and 1/2 shopping for the pair of shoes I HAD to have before coming back to the states. Yay mummies!!! Creepy... I saw one outside of the wrapping.. too graphic to my eyes that's for sure... sick! But kinda cool... hehe.

It's Over

After 2 1/2 weeks in Europe it was time to fly home. Although I was excited to sleep in my own room, use my own shower, not have to share a bed, not have to tell everyone that I'm changing so they can avert their eyes, and not walk a million miles every day, I did not want to come back. Europe is amazing. Better than I had hoped. And France, ooooh France, how I love me some France! I would live there for at least many a year of my life... it's so beautiful, and peaceful, at least the southern country side bit. Honestly, I have so many pictures worth looking at, and I wish I could put them all on here, but I can't, and it pains me so! Go to facebook and look at them all. It's such a beautiful place. But, it's good to be home. We got back and left for Montana just a few days later where we'll be, my family and I, until mid-August. This summer is an amazing one!

May 1st - June 12th ... Back in Seattle!

SEATTLE!

Well, I decided I just couldn't stay away from the place I love most... yup, Seattle! I decided to go back to Seattle for the first 6 weeks of my summer break. And since my boss' at Market Street Shoes are terribly kind, they let me come back to work for as long as I was in town. So, I finished my last final, packed up my bags (which, can I just say, I packed for 6 weeks in 1 suitcase and 1 duffle, never in the history of Jen has that even been thought of... I have to have at least a dozen dresses with me no matter where I am!) and I flew up to the land of trees, s

mall cars, bus riders, and bearded men. I spent my time one various people's couches, and if you're one of those people then seriously I can't say thank you enough. I stayed mostly on my old couch, which Autumn now owns, seeing as she lives in my old apartment. It was weird being back there. But so fun partying and playing with all the old roommates. We even got

to go see the shins! I also stayed with Sarah, Melanie, and Elise. Not to mention the hundreds of times my awesome family drove up to get me for a day or two of me visiting down in southern Seattle. And I got to go down to vancouver and visit my mom and her man. Since it's been awhile, I'm just going to throw in a few pictures, and sum it up!!

This is me and the girls, Sarah and Elise, enjoying a day at the "beach". I didn't have sunglasses, so Elise let me use a pair she got for free at this event... they weren't the cutest things ev

er on me... but they did the trick! Plus I didn't have shorts... so I wore Nick's (Elise's

boyfriend's) basket ball shorts... thanks nick... although I don't think he even knows. Heh.

Very rarely do we all get any days off together, but somehow we managed one, on an 85 degree day too, so what else are you to do?? Yup, tan! Or in my case... burn.

Here are Autumn, Charlie, and Scotty in the kitchen. Charlie and Scotty painted a lot, and Autumn and I bugged them a lot. Ahh the basement apartment. Thanks guys for the use of both your couches... even though Scotty would always try to watch movies at 3 am with me sleeping on the other half the couch... super rude. Especially when I'm half asleep begging him not to put on Wall-e and so he puts it on and turns it up just to make me mad. But hey, free place to

sleep... so no complaints!!!

Here's Molly! She was pregnant the whole time I was there, so rarely did we actually call her Molly... I called her Miss Prego Pants. But the pregnant nicknames were many... poor thing probably felt quite self conscious. She had the kittens a few weeks ago, and as far as I know they're all doing fine, and are super adorable!!!!

I got to go out to dinner a lot with all my friends. Here's a photo of me and Topher and a show we went to one friday with a few of our other friends. Topher and I are best at taking photos of the two of us. We just go together! TJ and JT. He's my hero, and one of my best friends.

Me and the girls all had an annual girls night. We're good at getting together one night outta the year to eat a ton of food, watch a lot of movies, and laugh so hard we cry, oh and dance... we always do a lot of dancing. These girls are the best people ever! Elise, Melanie, Sarah, Autumn, and me! This photo is of me and Mel.

On my trip down to visit my Mom in Vancouver, I said goodbye to Carmel, and it was really rough. I knew it'd probably be the last time I saw him, since he was 14. He passed away on June 23rd, while I was away in Europe. He was such an amazing dog, he did so much for my family. I'm very thankful I got the chance to see him and tell him I love him. I would do a dedicated tribute to Carmel entry, but I think that remember Carmel is above putting him on my blog. He was my best friend. And I think that's all that needs to be said about him. He's so happy now, and I'm happy for him. He was a very selfless being, and I think we can all take a page out of his book. World's best dog: Carmel Joshua Russell.

I had so much fun in Seattle, it was really sad leaving. I got super sick the last 2 days I was there, we had a going away party, but I ended up just bailing and falling asleep on everyone. Sorry guys! I had to say goodbye and fly home with a fever ... not one of the more fun moments in my life! But I knew I was flying to Europe in just 3 days... so somehow I managed to pull through. Haha. I miss all my Seattle friends and family on the daily. They're the best people I've come across to date, and I know that Seattle will always be my home.

Mom's wedding time!

Well, for the past month everyday has been the same for me, so there hasn't really been a need to do a posting. But this past weekend I flew to Oregon to visit friends and to go to my mom's wedding. So, here are a few photos, and brief summary of that... for the few of you whom actually read this thing!! :)

On friday Michelle, Matt, Rachel, and I went out to Vancouver to see my mom and meet Fred and his family. We hung out at their house for a few hours. They have quite a few animals running amok, since they've combined, the home now has two dogs and three cats. This (seen below) is Shakespeare, he's really cute. Rachel is giving him a kiss :). Note how she's got her doggie and my cell phone... she carried both around almost the entire weekend, super cute.

Rachel needed a nap, and while everyone ran around like crazy trying to find her crib that was packed away somewhere, I held her on my lap and grandma put a blanket over us. She had doggie gripped in one hand, and my cell phone in the other, and was out in a matter of minutes. Grandma and I have got it covered, no one panic! 

Emily and I went to Rimsky's one night. It's an amazing little cafe in Portland. The bathroom is painted to look like it's underwater. This is my favorite part. It's made to look like a dock and someone sitting on the end fishing. The fishing hook is hanging down from the ceiling also, it's just not in the photo. 

At the wedding! 

Here are a few photos from the wedding. Emily came to support, and then there were a few of my mom's friends and of Fred's friends and then a lot of Fred's family. The women wore shawls and the men wore kilts. It was pretty sweet. 

This is Emily and I waiting for everyone to be done with photos. I turned my shawl into an awesome scarf, so we took a shot of that.

Rachel got some cute silk flowers to carry around since she was the unofficial flower girl. Sadly in LDS weddings there isn't really a real flower girl. The poor thing had a cold and was so tired from being carted around with out regular naps. It was a hard day for her. But she looked adorable as usual. I'm still mad at Michelle for having such a cute kid, puts a lot of pressure on me when I start poppin out the kiddies. A lot of compete with! 

Here's the new fam! Me, Michelle, my Mom, Fred, Keenan, and Austin. Mom has two girls, Fred has two boys! Kenan is married, but I don't have a good picture with his wife in it, and obviously Michelle has Matt and Rachel... so I guess I should have picked a different photo... but oh well. Here's the newly weds and their kids. There, how's that. 

Later, at the Drey's:

We took about a bajillion photos, but this one seemed to be the best. Emily, Dustin, and me all hangin out on Saturday night. Poor Emily was getting squashed. Dustin and I were pretty hyper. 

Well, it was a quick trip. I had to come back down for finals this week. But I'm glad I got the chance to go up, and to see Fred's family. Looks like my mom's pretty happy, so I'm pretty happy for her! And they seem to me to be good people. And I'm not just saying that because I know Fred will be reading this... hehe... I may just actually mean it. :) 

Seattle on Friday, everyone get excited for me!

ATVing yo!

Saturday morning rolled around this week, much like it does every week, only this week... it rolled around and was all sunny! So we woke up early, put on a bajillion layers of clothes, and headed out to the wonders of 5 mile pass. And let me tell you I'm still sore. 

Dave, Rachel, Maddie, and myself all got up at 7, left the house at 8, and were on the ATVs and our way to happiness by 9:30. We rode up and down the hills of Utah for a good 4 hours totaling 27ish miles. We even went up one large hillside that dave hadn't been up before!

I took some pictures of the scenery, but it was nothing you haven't seen before, a bunch of mountains around a valley... so I've thrown in some pictures of us messin around in the wilderness. 

This is the gravel pit. Maddie, Rachel, and I are all sitting at the top of it. It was so high up! You could throw a rock off the side and sing the abc's before it hit the bottom, it's true, we did it twice. It was intense. We rode up the backside, then Dave rode back down and took the picture of us.... yay for Dave who then rode back up and got my ATV turned around for me, because it was pretty rocky up there, and I didn't want to die.... woop.

This is the remains of a cabin. Look how buff we are! (from left to right: Rachel, me, and Maddie)

We stopped on the top of a huge hill and I took a ton of photos of the scenery, and then Maddie and I started messing around and taking a ton of random photos (you can see them all on my Facebook). This is Dave and Rachel planning where to go next. I love how Dave's pointing off in the distance, and Rachel's just scratching her head. Classic. I love my family.

This is me. I am posing. Can you tell?

Ok, ok fine. This is the best shot of the scenery. I love the mountains. They're really beautiful. Some people here can tell where they are based on where the mountains are. I can't since there are mountains all around in a circular fashion, so pretty much wherever you look, it looks the same. 

Well, I had a blast. I forgot how much I love riding an ATV at screaming speeds down a gravel path, and that I do enjoy riding an ATV up a steeply slanted hill side, just not as much as the gravel path part.

hey, you, guess what?! I turned 22 ...

Well, I turned 22 years old this past week. Yup, it's true. As my dad said, I'm there, it's done, I'm grown up. Great pep-talk by the way, thanks Dad! :) I decided that the best way to spend my birthday was to fly to Seattle for a brief vacation. My birthday, thankfully, falls on spring break 3/4ths of the time. So with out even missing a day of school, I loaded up a duffle and flew off to Seattle. I was so excited to see all my friends and family again. I have to admit I was a little nervous that I had been replaced amongst my group of friends, but I found quickly that none of my friends had forgotten me, and I remembered just how much I love all of my wonderful friends. 

So the first day was a family day. I didn't take any pictures, sorry guys! I had a lot of fun running amok with Annabelle and Lucas, my cute cousins. And I got to eat pho and sushi all in one day! Then, thanks to Beth, I eat a huge piece of wonderful carrot cake. MMMM. So good. So Ram and I (my uncle) celebrated our birthday's on Wednesday. And I spent the night there. Then Thursday morning --- MY BIRTHDAY! --- I hung out more with the family, got gussied up, and headed off to Ballard to reunite with my true love -- shoes.

I hung out with Melanie at the store for a few hours then met up with the girls at Velouria and was in heaven. I bought 3 new dresses!! Yay! Happy birthday to me! Thursday night all my friends got together and went to dinner at Thaiku. It was so much fun being together with all of them again. And due to a lot of changes at Market Street Shoes many of them hadn't seen each other in awhile, so it was a fun reunion. We took a ton of pictures, and I'll put a few up so you all can see how cute my friends are! 

Topher and I! TJ and JT! 

Justin! Aka Little Justin! Aka MB! Aka Matt Bauer! Aka BO$$

Autumn, Sarah, and myself. It's kind of like we've never used chopsticks before, never fear that's not actually the case. We're chopstick proficient. 

On the way back to the basement for a super fun party. Yay for basement parties!

Nick and Elise! They're the best. And Elise is my OH! So naturally I love her. And since Nick is her other other half, I also love him! It's one large group of love I tell ya.

We all hung out in the basement for many an hour. I knew I would need to stay up late, and I tried to prepare myself. But I figured I'd only make it until 1. This picture was taken around 2:30, so I did a lot better than expected. Justin and Austin left around 1, then Elise and Nick left around 2, and all us basement dwellers continued to hang out until the wee hours of the morning. 

Well, at around 4 we finally decided it was time to go to bed. Although it technically wasn't my birthday any longer, I still say that whole day counts as my birthday, and it was one of my best. I can't believe I have such a great group of friends out there. I had so much fun laughing and frolicking and being extremely loud. I forgot how loud I can really be, so I apologize for that one, but I loved spending time with each and everyone of them. I also got to see my old boss' from Shoes. And that was a lot of fun, chatting and catching up with them. :) Yay for having a Seattle family!

Speaking of family, I went back to hanging out with my family on Saturday. It was great getting to see all of them. I had a slumber party Saturday night with my Grandma and Mom and Carmel. Carm-ba-loo is 14 now! I took some cute pictures, but I'll just put one of him in. He's my bestest friendest. And I love him!

Well, Sunday evening came quickly, and it was time to head home and back to real life. It was so much fun seeing everyone in Seattle, and spending a ton of money, and getting no sleep. So thanks everyone who welcomed me back. And for those of you whom live in Utah, never fear, I was happy to come home to all of you. Because I love you! 

Happy birthday Jen! Let's do it all over again next year! Ok? OK! 

Oh and for the record, I spent a lot of money and bought a lot of new things, and it made me happy. Happy happy happy! So thanks Shoes and Velouria for filling up my closet with joy.

Essays and Cookies

Well, this week really all that happened was a bunch of procrastination (which is hard to document) and then some good old essay writing and cookie making. So, let me break it down for you. We will start at the beginning. 

Let's go back, back to a time of guaranteed snow on the ground, at least two layers of pants, and 6 hours of sunlight during the day... we go back to January.

--blurry lines here to signifying a time travel back back back--

I started a little ol' class called geography, which at first was probably the hardest part:

remembering it was geography instead of geology. Class was fun, none too challenging, maybe a little dry at times, but what class isn't. Let's fast forward, shall we? I really don't like being back in the snow.... eek!

MARCH! It's essay time folks. And now that I've made a friend or two in the class things got a little more interesting. And to step up the excitement factor a bet

 was made. On the essay that was due this Wednesday, me and my friend decided 

that whom ever got a lower grade owed the other a candy bar. So, I sat down the night before the due date, and began to write up one good essay. It was about religion in early North

 America, no easy task let me tell you! Here are a few necessities I pulled out for the

 writing extravaganza. 

1. My water bottle, meeting all my parched needs

2. My notebook of glory. Ever asked yourself, "what would a unicorn do?" Well, I know the answer to that one!

3. POPCORN! I don't think I would be able to live my life if it weren't for this glorious bag of popped corn. 

4. A laptop... write on good soul.

Well, there you have it, the necessities of essay writing. Then throw in one half sleep afro sporting i-pod loving me, and you get a rock'n hard to beat essay of your dreams! (This is taken only a half hour into the writing process, you don't want to see the after pictures)

NOW! As coincidence would have it, it was my teacher's birthday on Wednesday, the exact same day as the due date of our little paper. How do I know this? Never think I'm above finding teachers and adding them to my Facebook account. This comes in handy, quite often, 

and I would suggest it to all of you with teachers of your own out there. Hmm, my opponant is quite the essay writer, and is known for receiving higher scores than me on every single assignment thus far in the class. I knew I was in trouble, and I didn't want to shell out the dollar to get him a candy bar for hecks sake! So, I got serious, and at 10:00 on Tuesday night decided it would be a good plan to bake the ol' teach some chocolate chip cookies. For those of you who don't know me, that doesn't seem like too big a task, but for those of you who do know me... well you are now suffering what is most commonly known as a heart attack, chew a bayer, and dial 911 immediately. I don't bake, cook, brew, stew, broil, fillet, or grill ... not ever ... not never ... my future children may in fact starve. This is all true. So, I made up some cookies! The first batch went horribly wrong, now as I told Meagan this, she asked me what could possibly go wrong while making cookies? But as I explained all the things I did wrong (not enough flour, mixed them all in the wrong bowls, baking powder catastrophe, etc) she'll attest to my having royally messed up the cookies. Well folks, there I was: 10:30 PM, ruined cookies, hair out to the moon, and near tears. But did I quit! NEVER! I'd done so much trash talking at this point, I had to get a better grade on that essay, or die trying. So Rachel and I loaded into the Denali and headed down to Kohler's. We got more chocolate chips, brown sugar, and some milk too just for kicks. And by golly, it took the whole family, but I got those cookies made! 

Me trying to preheat the oven, it's a super compex thing, I swear it's a lot harder than you would think. 

Me showing off the competed cookie sheet ready to go in (note these are the cookies that turned out, well, subpar).

And those are my hands covered in cookie dough, and for those of you who ate the cookies, don't worry I washed em like crazy, and made sure there wasn't too much dog hair involved.

 

Well, Wednesday rolled around. I was exhausted and near defeat... but I put on my best dress (not really more like a cute skirt, argyle sweater, and my grey Malibrans) and headed out to school carrying a plate of fresh cookies. More people said, "ooh cookies!" to me as I walked past them in the hall than you would think.... and more than once kids I sat by in class tried, jokingly of course, to sneak the plate off my desk, oh yeah, hahaha, very funny. And then I got to geography. My component tried to thwart my evil plans by giving my teacher candy (maybe I shouldn't have told him of my plan to bring in cookies), but my teacher was still super appreciative when I gave him the cookies. I also shared some with my opponent since I'm really a kind person, so what are ya gonna do? All in all, I'd say it wasn't a bribe.... more like what I said, I'm a kind person, and I couldn't go to class knowing full well it was a teacher's birthday and not doing anything about it. So, there ya go. Hopefully my karma has been boosted.... and we've all learned a lesson about procrastinating, which will stick until I have more homework... like now, I'm writing a blog instead of reading for a test I have tomorrow! But heck, what fun is getting your homework done? Exactly! 

I'm coming to Seattle in 6 days! And I turn 22 in 7! And those are my biggest excitements this week. :) Thanks for reading ya'll. 

Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers... extended!!

Good Evening! Our family decided to sit down this here night and watch some Lord of the Rings. You have to understand, for those of you who don't know our family, Lord of the Rings... well it's the best. The best ever, out of anything, it tops it all. If you don't like Lord of the Rings then you probably wouldn't like my family, and that's just how it is. This is a picture of my family about 45 minutes in. Sam Wise (yes, we love Lord of the Rings just that much) in the foreground had a rough day playing out front with the neighbor's Lab, Bronco. They run and run and play and frolic and bite each other and things are just grand. So, Sam Wise has been asleep for about 5 hours straight now. Dave made it probably 15 minutes into the movie, he's recovering from pneumonia, so we'll excuse him.



Grace is asleep foot to foot with Dave as to share the good blanket. And then Rachel, for some bizarre reason is in fact asleep on top of the desk behind the couch... she always sits back there to draw while we watch TV, and somehow she's ended up crawling onto it for a quick snooze. :) Needless to say, as I write this they're coming back from the dead, and we may all be awake for the last hour or so.

Well, some of you might have seen my facebook status about a week and a half back, "Jen is embarking on Craft week!" I was making a quilt for one of my good friends Melissa. I used to work with her at the UPS store for a year about 2 years back. She lives in Boise now, but came back down to have a baby shower at her parents house today in American Fork. I sewed her a baby quilt... don't look at me... it's a really bad picture... stupid hair cut... but I love how the quilt turned out!! I'm glad I could be here to see her all pregnant and cute. I'll post a picture we took of the 3 girls who worked at the UPS store together for that year. I have to get it from my friend in order to post it. But it'll be here soon enough.


Well, this brings us to PET OF THE WEEK!

Sam-Wise!!
Here's Sam, just a few minutes ago, he's asleep just below where I'm sitting on the couch. He's so tuckered out. He loves to snuggle. You stand behind him, and he backs up and sits down right on your feet, leans into you, and just relaxes as you pet and pet and pet. He knows all our names, "Sam, where's Rachel?" and he goes running to her. He now gets the paper too, woop woop. And his favorite trick is to roll over, he gets so excited when he gets it right. He looooves Montana, because he gets to play in the lake all the day long. He's a good boy. And I love my Sam-Wise.


This concludes pet of the week. Although I consider myself having 3 other cats and 2 other dogs, I am currently not living with them, so I will refrain from pulling out dull pictures of the past and making you all read about how cute they are... I know you're not all as pet crazed as I. Which means my next post will feature a new segment. That is my next Saterday/Sunday post, it's a once weekly segment. I'll have to come up with another for my Tuesday/Wednesday post.

All right, well, I hope you've all had good weeks. Mine was quite eventful... hair cut and quilt and all. :) Although the hair cut leaves me in a perma bad mood. BUT HEY! I'm coming to visit Seattle in 18 days!!! I'm sooo excited. I want to see all of you, and you're getting massive amounts of hugs. I don't know why, I just really want to hug you all, a lot. :)