LIFE HAPPENS.

You know what? Life really does happen so FAST.  I just read my last post about the little run in the mud. It's kinda disgusting the amount of things that have gone on since the last time I posted. I made all these New's Year's resolutions with Jeff, to write in my journal at least once a week. That sucks. So, I'll try to do this instead.

There is a plethora of life stories that I want to share but I will keep it to 3 things for now.

#1- Got ENGAGED!!
#2- Quit my Job.... eeeek!!
#3- Going on an Asian Vacation for 5 weeks to Taiwan, Philippines, and Thailand!!
#4- I know I said 3, but this is too good to not share. We are moving to BOISE!!

What the curse word are we thinking?! I really haven't the slightest clue. Life is one crazy thing. One day I work at Target, the next day I don't. That's just how it works. Then the next day we decide it's cool to spend thousands of dollars on a honeymoon. It's cool. I love Jeff, and I'm really excited to marry that man. He's just really the best thing ever.

Here is the engagement story. (I'll tell it via picture, I'm already sick of typing. Must. go. on.)


There we were Spring Breakin' like champs in San Francisco


It was really quite a last minute thing- but so great.


This was after the engagement, but I'll put it here anyway. We were practicing for our engagement pics. We're good. I love the Muir Woods.

Anyhoo, yes it had crossed my mind that perhaps Mr. Parker would propose while we were there. But really, I had no idea. He was really pretty downright awesome at keeping the whole thing a secret so all along I honestly had no idea what the man was thinking.

Well it comes down to the last day we are in San Fran. No proposal. Alright, Mr. Parker, it's not going to happen this time. At this point in time I'm thinking the guy honestly would do it in a Burger King parking lot, wouldn't surprise me.

The morning that we left we woke up early to go on a little bike ride. It was beautiful around this state park on the bay. Just one problem, our butt's were so sore from biking the day prior that it was ridiculously painful. We got about 3 blocks and then saw a trail. We decided to walk up it. To our surprise it had a lovely view of the city and bay.

Well, ya know, then I'm sure you can guess. We were just talking, he said really nice things. He's a really nice boy. I love him. Then mid-hug, he slid down my body, onto one knee and asked me to marry him. I said yes, and that by FAR is the best decision I've ever made yet. Ever.

Atop that hill is where the magic happened. We were pretty excited.


So excited that we just eloped.
Sike.

There it is in a nutshell. Crazy.

In 1 short week I'm free of Target.

In just 2 short weeks I'll have myself a hub.

And then we go on a sweet honeymoon.

And then we move to Boise.

I'm pretty excited for this adventure.

Especially with that cool boy.

More posts coming soon....about wedding details, Target scoop, NYC trip, and who the ell know what else.

A little run in the mud? Yes.

Have you ever heard of Cahoots?

It's a mud run/obstacle course. 

Team event.

Kinda amazing race style. 

Jeff and I did it a couple of weekends ago. 

These are the lovely pictures that the photographer of the event captured. 

How evil am I?

Like really, that is a face of a demon, and I'm gripping my claws deep into Mr. Parker's shoulders. 

Then... don't worry... I dunk his face FULLY in the mud.

Cool. 

But oh wait, it gets better. 

Then I point and laugh. 

Aren't I thee best girlfriend ever?

All-in-all the race was pretty fantastic. 

How could it not be?

(maybe the best part was I had to go to work directly after. No showering, just a little rinse from a trick of water. I left a trail of mud wherever I walked at work that night.)

T

Settling in to real life

So here I am. It's now August, summer is almost over... How in the ell did that happen? Regardless, life is great. Pretty darn great. The new job? Well shoot, that's a stress basket all by itself, but it's rather fantastic!

So here's my real story. Last Saturday I was playing with this boy named Jeff Parker. He's pretty cool, I guess.. So we do lots of cool things but last time. Was pretty cool. The real reason I wanted to write about it is because as we were doing, this un-explained, activity he was like, " I need to write things like this down, because then later in life I can go back and look at the stupid thing that I did."

Okay, so now do I have you wondering, what in the devil did they do? Well.... it really wasn't all that crazy. And I cannot even come close to doing it justice by explaining what we did. But here we go.

Have you ever heard of cutler dam? Maybe not. So there is a dam, and like most dam's there is a canyon on the other side of the dam (I'm really enjoying typing dam so many times..). But this dam has promised another city that they would supply water to them, so at the top of the dam there is a canal. Cutler canal. But it's super secret and apparently super illegal to do.

So there we were 3 boys and Kailey. Off to cutler canal we went. Mind you, you have to do this late at night. So here we are in the middle of really no-where driving up and down switch-backs, down steep dirt roads, a little creeped out, weird dogs are howling, we're worried the police is on our tail, we're surrounded by some creepy huge electricity machine from the dam... there's the situation.

We hike in the pitch black to where we need to go in to float. Mind you you're hiking along a trail in which there is a steep drop off on one side, and then working our way across metal gates, where below is sheer cliffness. I had my big girl pants on, yes.

We start floating. I'm feeling good. Enjoying myself. Giggling. Having a grand old time. Then we hear something. Footsteps, SH**.

Here's the deal. I would consider myself a pretty adventuresome person. But in reality, let's be honest. I hate doing things that may get me into trouble or be illegal. So at this point i'm panicking. I just want to get out and surrender. We've lost half the group, and thank my lucky stars Jeff was still by my side.

Okay, so I had my freak out. Came to my senses. We keep going. Creepy birds are squaking, I don't like this. Then. Then. WE SEE PEOPLE. Now, now, now i'm freaking. BUT then, it's just more of our fellow floaters. It was ok. No copper encounters that night.

I wish I had pictures... but i don't... so there is my story that I felt obligated to write. Maybe 30 years from now i'll look back and realize what an idiot I am.

My girl Kelly + Cancer = Smiling Kailey

So I may or may not have an odd obsession with the Kelly Clarkson song Stronger. So be it. Me and all the other 12 year old girls will represent. 

Then... then I was introduced to this. It just made the song about 47 jillion times better!!!

Enjoy!

While we are on the subject of cancer, you know what I was able to be a part of this weekend that was a total blast? Oh represent wacky in the Ogden Marathon. But don't be deceived, we walked the 5k, yep WALKED.     It was a royal blast and made me so grateful for all of the incredible people in my life. I have this incredible support system of just downright good people around me. They hold me to a higher standard and keep me walking on the straight and narrow. I am so blessed to be have such incredible family and friends. They open doors and provide opportunities to me that most people could only dream about. I am truly one blessed chicky.

Here are some highlights from the event...

Cait and I at the starting line. The starting line you say? Where are all the people? Oh they are just about 15 minutes down the road.... we were just a smidge late.... oops. However, it merely added to the greatness of the event. 

Oh ya know just dressed up in our Wacky attire.

Please do your best to refrain from getting too jealous of Jeff and my stunning attire. 

All-in-all obviously the event was a success and it was nothing but smiles, fun, and giggles.

One last note, cute Tyler Smith lost his fight with cancer this weekend. He was one heck of a fighter. Inspire yourself and read his story at:

http://fight2thefinish.com/

Oh nothing, just saying goodbye to the best times of my life... no big.

So okay this is a little delayed but I officially graduated 2 weeks ago!!!!
WA-FREAKIN-HOO!!!
But.... here's the thing. I loved Logan.
Everything about it. My friends. The weather. Crazy teachers. Granny G. Everything.
And not its gone...
I start a big kid job soon...
don't worry i'll have life insurance... i'm really that old? (I need a beneficiary for that 100k plan, so start sucking up my friends)
So i was looking through some pictures of the last month of two and thought i'd share....

these are a select few reasons why my heart loves stinky Cache Valley so much!

P.S. 

sorry be prepared for a profuse amount of pictures...

These last couple of weeks before I left were pretty swell..

I'll miss spending WAY too much time sitting in the hammock. 

Thinking about doing homework...

but letting my laziness overpower me. 

Okay, well this will still happen...

but... i'll miss random road trips with my BFF's

(this is when we went to Vail for the FD ball)

I'll miss, mogoli, Hali climbing around in trees and being cool.

She's going on a mission to Russian. 

What a woman!

Chance. What a true gem.

She's always up for an adventure. 

Tahiti here she comes!

Ash and Kev. 

Look at those cool catz.

Who wouldn't miss having them over all the time?

And of course miss Cholee Porter.

She rocks my socks.

I no longer have a tennis buddy.

I'll miss going to random things like baby animal days. 

(just for the record I FINALLY went this year. Every year I miss the dang baby animal days., and well.... it was just swell. We even got to go with those cuties.)

Yep, just holding little baby animals on cloud 9. No big deal. 

I'll miss random little celebrations...

and the creativity of having nothing to celebrate with.

This is how Hali does it.

One pudding and about 20 matches.

I lived with thee coolest chicks.

Seriously. It was just a party all the time. 

I'll miss people in our ward randomly knocking on our door asking us if we want to go fly in their plane.

It was a rather lovely way to bid Cache Valley goodbye.

I'll miss these girls talking me into running a triathlon without training. 

-word of advice, if you do a triathlon, remember a helmet. 

Chance was smoking hot in that ski helmet. 

Yep.

I loved Logan.

Mind you these adventures were just from a month or two of fun.

Now I move on.

Big kid job here I come.

I've got a lot to learn,

and I truly am excited for what lies in the future!!

WAHOOO

San Francisco

Have you ever been to San Francisco?

Well... if not, you should go. It's quite a treat. 

We went this past week for our spring break to stay with a friend there.

It brought us nothing but joy and giggles.

View from twin peaks. I tell you what. 

If you are just DYING to go to an incredibly hilly city,

go to San Fran.

You WILL NOT be disappointed. 

(don't worry, apparently my diva status was feeling high that day)

Such an artsy cool city. I felt like kinda a bum sometimes walking around in my jeans

and t-shirt. Everyone is not only artsy but, fashion conscious. 

Muir Woods= mini version of the Redwood Forests. 

Needless to say they are still AWESOME!!!!!!!

It's only a half hour drive from the city and such a saweet little oasis

Yep, I took that. Proud of myself yes I am. 

I was really excited to walk across the Golden Gate. 

(FYI Golden Gate is 1.7 miles across, and plan on walking both ways)

Most definitely my FAVORITE picture of the entire trip.

So what if we maybe sat on the corner waiting for buses quite often, to then realize we were on the wrong side and then would walk across the street to wait again. So what? We enjoyed looking at the curb.

(in case you were wondering that's a baby carrot. Laura LOVES baby carrots) 

Union Square and of course you have to do the Chinese heart when in front of a heart. 

(Chloee too appreciates my deep love of Asians)

Chinatown San Francisco = HEAVEN on earth!

It's kinda freaky how similar it is to Asia. 

Just add in about 4o jillion more people and high rise buildings and sha bam!

They had a lot of authentic food 

like steamed buns....

Obviously I love these from my face and miss them.

P.S. I may or may not have eaten about 10 moon cakes while I was there.... So what? They were tasty.

I still couldn't find spring onion pancakes though...i'm on my hunt!

You cannot go to San Fran and not ride the trolly, hanging on outside and all.

Lovely Seafood din din with our host Justin.

Note: Clam Chowder in sourdough bowls = AMAZING!!

P.S. stop by Ghiradelli, the smell the second you walk in is worth the walk, let alone the free chocolate they give you at the door. 

Laura's face explains this dilemma quite well.

So it was raining quite a bit the day we left. There we were zipping our way along back to Utah, when BAM

STORM WARNING

CHAINS OR AWD REQUIRED

Sh**.

That toyota corolla definitely does not qualify.

Driving along there are these dude trying to sell chains, mind you at this point it was still raining, maybe slushing a bit.

So we pull off and start calling our parents for advice. 

Because in UTAH a storm warning of such would mean there is some serious snow going on, right?

Laura obviously didn't like what her parents had to say..

Needless to say after contemplating what to do for a good half hour we went in and talked to the workers at the gas station. 

They told us if we're from Utah we'll be fine.

We were. I drove 65 most of the way. Next to the dinguses driving with chains on in light rain. Idiots

Another note to self- if you ever driving through that pass (name I can't remember at this point) don't listen to the storm warnings. THEY. ARE DUMB

and now.... i'm sitting at home safely. going to work on some homework, read my book, and ski. What a great way to top off a lovely spring break.

It Snowed Today. I Love Snow.

So lately my dad is all into sustainable living....
like really into it....
 it cracks me up.
Then something happened... now i'm kinda diggin it. 

You know what else happened? 

It snowed today. 

I love snow, it brings over EVERY childlike emotion inside of me that their possibly can be. 

Then I saw this video.....

Lets just go ahead and stop global warming.....

No Snow=Cranky Kailey
and well it is no secret that  Cranky Kailey is never a good Kailey 

Watch it. Ittzzz good.

PSSSS HAPPY LEAP YEAR. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sv6dMFF_yts