The Birthday Week

I haven't updated for a while, so this is kind of just a recap of the last couple weeks. It's been kind of chaotic, because of my mom's surprise party, my birthday, the cruise, volleyball, and school starting again. There are some kind of random things here, but they are pretty funny, so it's worth it.

My birthday was pretty good, except my mom and dad left that day. They ended up catching a red-eye flight at 1 in the morning on the 9th, so my mom says that they didn't 'actually' leave on my birthday, but I still didn't get to sleep in my own bed and they weren't there to tuck us in (not that I needed tucking in)

I got a Chicken Soup for the Soul book. I absolutely LOVE those! Now I have the Girls' Soul, Teenager's Soul 2, Christmas Treasury, and LDS soul. They are the best books ever!

I also got a John Bytheway 11 disc collection. I love him, too. I have him on my MP3 player, and I listen to him and Brian Regan on the bus every morning, pretty much. If anybody didn't know, John Bytheway is an amazing LDS comedian, and speaker. He kinda combines the two into a hilarious and spiritual talk. He came to our Youth Conference last year, so I have actually met him AND had my picture taken with him.

My dad took me to Kneaders for my birthday breakfast. It was really good, but it's not exactly an Ihop. That was Wednesday morning, and on Thursday night before they left, my mom and dad took me to Winger's. Then on Saturday morning, my friend kidnapped me from Oma Kim and Opa Brent's, and took me to breakfast, then Oma Cheryl took me out to an early dinner at Paradise Bakery and Cafe. That was by far my favorite, but I had been out WAY too much lately, so I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have.

On the morning of my birthday . . .

She is waaay too pampered

Our luggage for three nights at my grandparent's house ten minutes away ...

Isn't she huge?

Opening presents at Oma's

My dad got a pair of Perfect Push-up things for his birthday, so Caleb was trying them out. I made the mistake of doing three sets of 15 the day before my first volleyball tournament ...

I just thought that this was really pretty. It was taken from our backyard, and it isn't photoshopped.

Zoee got kinda bored and homesick after a while at Oma and Opa's.

But she did love playing with her rope in the snow. She thought that it would be really funny to first of all break her toy, and then poop on it. Not only that, but then she ran down the 5 mile long driveway with it! So I chased her, in my slippers, and fell on my butt about 5 times, and to top it all off, she wanted to play with her toy still, so she brought it to me and smeared it across my pants, then took off across the yard again! I was not very happy with her that day.

There are only two ducks left now - Delilah and Dot. Squirt and Nellie, mine and Kaya's personal favorites, were killed, but I forgot how. I think a mink got them.

The rest of the pond is frozen over, so they just swim around in circles.

On Sunday night, Opa had to go to an Eagle Scout Award, so we all went with him. The eagle was way cool! She was really pretty, and we learned a lot about her in the 2 hours we spent waiting for the thing to start. Opa thought it started at 6, and it didn't really start until about 7:30.

Holly was her name. She has a wingspan of over 7 feet!

My first volleyball tournament was on Friday and Saturday. I was not prepared for such a long day. Friday's tournament was in Kaysville, 45 minutes away. We had to be there at 3:00, and school didn't even get out until 2:45, so I got checked out of Pre-Algebra! I actually like that class a lot, though, so I was a little bit sad.

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Our team got 3rd place in our pool of 4 teams on Friday, which isn't bad for our first tournament, and knowing that half of the girls on our team have never played volleyball in their life! I am number ten, and also the setter. My coach said that I was ON FIRE! That is really really good! I got 4 hits on Friday alone, and a really good block that got us a point, even though I wasn't supposed to block!

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Since Kaysville is so far away, we didn't get home until 10:00. Then, since we were in 3rd place, we had to go Park City, and we had to be there at 8:00! So we woke up at 6:00, picked up my friend in Highland, and drove an hour and a half away to Park City. There, we played a pool of 4 and got 4th place, I think. The first game we lost, but only by a few points. The second game, we got burned really badly. We lost 6-25 the first match, and 9-25 the second. After that, we had a break, so we all bought cookies (that is the only junk food our coach would let us eat) and got hyper, and won one match in the third game, which kept us in last place.

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Then, in the actual eliminating tournament, we reffereed the first game, then played, won, and played again. All the other teams had been eliminated already, so we were in the championship game, and we lost, so we got second place for our division! I was ON FIRE then, too! I had three hits that whole day, two tips, and another block. My serves were awesome, also, except we didn't get to keep them for very long.

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Anyway, I am really really tired and sore. I have never played so much volleyball in my life! We got to Park City before the sun was up, and left after it was down. 11 HOURS STRAIGHT! Oh, and then, when we got home at 8:30 and I was exhausted and felt like I was going to die, my mom had invited all my friends over for a BIRTHDAY PARTY! Yay. I think they had a great time, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was busy being jealous of Zoee, who was sprawled out on the living room floor, sleeping.

We got ten minutes to practice before each game started, so we were doing a drill here. I think I was supposed to be setting the ball to number 4, which I didn't exactly do! (I'm number 10)

Sweet shorts, huh? They gave me the worst rash I have had in my life, and they made me look way fat. Oh well. At least they aren't really hot.

My killer serve ...

Here are the random pictures. I was cute in this picture, but my dad on the other hand ... Nate said he looked like he had to poo really bad.

Zoee found my gloves ...

I finally found my dad's birthday present. The one that I thought I would be way smart and hide in a place where nobody would ever find it, and then I forgot where that place was.

Caleb and Nathan are so freakin cute when they are listening to their new MP3 players! Someday I'll post Caleb singing Colbie Caillat - that's the best, besides Life is a Highway.