SADIES went 80s

ah yes. another typical dance blog post. but this was my last Sadie Hawkins, and my second to last Girls Choice dance. I'm getting old. but (don't tell the others), this date is definitely one of THREE that is tied for my favorite. (I don't have a favorite; all of my top 3 take the cake for different reasons.)

I decided to ask one of my oldest friends way back from elementary school. I have no pictures of how I asked, but I left a jar of Swedish fish on his door, and cut out pieces of paper with letters of my name and hid them in there. I said, "of all the fish in the sea, you are the SWEDISH one. come to Sadies with me?"

well, a few weeks later, the doorbell rings, and I'm in my sweats, and my brothers tell me it's for me. I see a group of German exchange students at my door, they ask, "are you Miriam?" and I say "yes" and then they start singing. and I'm so confused as to what's going on, but they say "Zane", "dance", "Sadies"..... and then at the end they say "and he will say YES" and I just look at them speechless, and finally I can say, "thank you SO MUCH" and they say in their thick accents "it was our pleasure!" and they run off.

the theme, as stated in the title, was the 1980's. I'm not one of those people who claims to be "born in the wrong generation", but the 80's is definitely my favorite decade of the past. I love the music, the movies, the outfits, and the hair. but I knew that most people would dress as your typical 80's workout people, and I wanted to do something different. so I texted Zane and asked if he would want to go as Marty McFly from Back to the Future and I would go as his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker. he thought it was a great idea, and as you will be able to see in a few paragraphs, we pulled it off really well.

our group split for the day date, so while 3 couples were doing yoga, me and 5 other couples all met at our friend Dathyl's house, and she drove us around in a 12 passenger van on an adventure to go on a space mission! getting to the place was the real adventure. in Pleasant Grove, there are 2 different "space mission" centers: one is an old elementary school, and the other is some private school that is in this really nice neighborhood. well, we showed up at the old elementary school, and the guy inside told us we were at the wrong place, and that he would call the other one and tell us that we would be on our way. so, he did, and we got lost again, but eventually we found it. on the door of the school, it said "Happy Birthday Liam", and I think it was my date who said, "hey guys, it's Liam's birthday" and I said "NO WAY!" and kept that in mind in case we were to run into a younger boy there. then, the lady in charge (who was probably a year younger than us) gave us assignments, and we went into this big room for a space station simulation. we all had different positions: Captain, Officer, Science Dude, Communications Officer, Engineer, Security Dude who Shoots People with Guns, Operations Officer, and Operations Power Dude (me). My job was to send codes to the Engineer to fix the ship, and to control the engine power, missile power, and all that stuff. it was a very vital position! somehow in the middle of the mission, Zane figured out how to hack the real computer (not just the simulation) and started printing out random things. when our mission ended, the girl in charge came in, and Zane handed her some fake credit that he printed off and she was SO CONFUSED, and finally said, "I cannot accept that, I only accept chocolate milk". so he opens that one painting program that everyone played on as a kid, "painted" the words "CHOCOLATE MILK", printed it out, and handed it to her. she looked even more confused and asked how the heck he did that, and we all just laughed so hard. she gave us a really bad score for creativity (BUT REALLY MY DATE HACKED HER SYSTEM SO WE DESERVED MORE).
well, as we were walking out, we indeed saw a group of little boys running around. so I asked, "which one of you is Liam?" and one boy yells "ME! ME!" so our whole group yells, "HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIAM!" we either really scared him or made his day!

exactly 2 hours later, after my mom curled and teased and sprayed and blew dry and sprayed my hair, I picked Zane up again, only a few minutes after he finished running around town acquiring his costume. but dang we looked good. we got our pictures taken at Mckenna's dad's studio with the funky blue background, and we all looked so good. (but Zane and I looked the best. everyone was close though.)

 this is how Marty and Jennifer were posed in the movie. however, the real life height ratio between Zane and I made it hard to look exactly like Marty and Jennifer. but we were pretty dang close.

 front row: Madisen and Sam (the glam rockers), and Lindsey and Josh (Charlie and Maverick from Top Gun). second row: Isaac and Ali, Nate and Raya, Sophie and Ben (they are wearing Sophie's parent's student government sweaters from the 80's!). third row: Joel and Cami, Levi and Dathyl, Brady and Mckenna, me and Zane

 front steps: me, Raya, Madisen. next 4: Ali, Sophie, Cami, and Lindsey. the 2 in the back: Mckenna and Dathyl

after we took those lovely pictures, we went to Mckenna's house for dinner. we had the best Cafe Rio style burritos, and dang those were so so good. I could've eaten 20 of those. we were finished by 8:00, which is when the dance started. but usually, people don't start making appearances until 9. but our group was determined to be the first ones at the dance. so, we were. this was definitely my favorite theme. Timpview played it old school and held it in the old south gym and there were balloons everywhere. the decorations were amazing. glow sticks were handed out at the door. Zane picked up every glow stick that was on the floor and put it on my wrist. he said, "I want you to have more of these than any of us!" well, it worked and I came home with about 23 glowsticks! the music was so good, and everyone looked so good. it did get pretty hot inside, so every other song, we just stepped outside to take a breather, but once a good 80's jam came on, we would run back in and start dancing! we owned that dance floor! we got into it more than anyone else, and I probably embarrassed him by singing (sorry, yelling) out all the words to every song, but I didn't care. we were having the time of our lives. and everyone knew who we were dressed up as, so more points for us!

after being at the dance for a record of 2 hours, we went to Lindsey's grandparents and ate pazookies. if you haven't had a pazookie before in your life, then you are missing out big time. they are cookies baked in mini pie tins topped with ice cream and hot fudge. we also enjoyed deep conversations about car washes, top ramen, hairstylists, and many other things. it was definitely a date I would never forget!

the time I was a cheerleader

first off, I'd just like to say that I've been very busy. I'm starting college applications, I'm a senior in high school, I'm involved in a lot of things, but everyone else is also very busy and I don't think anyone even reads this anymore, so why do I start with this really dumb forward?

when I was around 8 years old, my best friend told me she wanted to be a cheerleader, and without thinking, I said, "that's really dumb." and she asked me why and I said, "all you do is do flips and stuff and cheer at sports." I didn't want to tell her the real reason I thought it was dumb was because she could do a back handspring, and I couldn't, no matter how hard I tried. so, in my little 8 year old brain, if I couldn't do it, it was dumb. my mom was a gymnast in her younger years, and she thought that because I was her only girl, I was her only hope of carrying on the tradition. so when I was 5 years old, I got enrolled in a gymnastics class. and I SUCKED. I wasn't flexible, I fell all the time, and my grandma even came to watch a lesson, and she told my mom, "you're wasting your money on this." so, after a year, my mom pulled me out of gymnastics, and all I really knew how to do was turn a cartwheel. so I knew, at a very young age, that I would never be able to make it as a cheerleader.

fast forward to 8th grade, when all my friends decided that they were going to try out for cheer in 9th grade. now this was around the time when I started to actually enjoy playing tennis, so my plans were to defy everyone and join the tennis team instead of the cheer squad. but part of me wanted so desperately to fit in with all my friends, so I began listing all the reasons to why I would be a good cheerleader: I was cute, short, full of energy, I had a loud voice, and I would look so good in a cheer uniform. I would get to go to every football game and everyone would be watching me. I told my best friend that I wanted to be a cheerleader (the same one I tried to convince that cheer was dumb), and she said, "well, you better start taking real tumbling classes, and you better actually learn how to do a back handspring." and then I decided to be rational and I realized I am a horrible dancer, I can't move in sync with anyone, and sadly, I cannot do a back handspring. my freshman year, I didn't end up trying for any athletic teams because my dad's sabbatical in Japan interfered with my first term. but when I went to my first football game, I watched my friends cheering and I thought, I really just want to go down there. just once. I have school spirit. I'm not a gymnast, I'm not a dancer, but I can get the student section pumped up. I learned all the cheers from being in the student section, but as I became more involved in tennis and other things, my desire to be a cheerleader diminished.

until Halloween.

last year, I dressed up as Ron Burgundy, and everyone thought it was super funny. the year before, I was a Duck Dynasty guy and even brought a fake duck that my grandpa uses for hunting, and covered it in fake blood and everything. that was also memorable. but this year, I didn't have any ideas, and since I was a senior, I thought that dressing up was starting to get lame anyway. but then, I remembered that I lost a bet on the first day of school and I was supposed to wear my old ugly tennis outfit from sophomore year on the first day. but I chickened out, didn't do it, and who knows where that uniform went after that. So I thought, well it's Halloween, no one will question me if I wear it on that day! but I knew I wouldn't be able to find it. so I asked my best friend on the tennis team if she still had hers, and she said she only had the skirt, but if I wanted, I could wear it with her old cheer top from freshman year, and go as a cheerleader with an ugly skirt. (she actually ran into me at the gas station that night, and she had the clothes IN HER CAR so in our weird gas station rendezvous I came back with my Halloween costume.) Halloween was on a Saturday, so that Friday at school, I wore the cheer outfit and a lot of people told me I looked good (even though I didn't), but it just wasn't Ron Burgundy or Duck Dynasty. then, I got a brilliant idea.

the next day (which was actually Halloween) was the first round of the playoffs for football. I figured if I show up to the game in the cheer outfit, people would think it's funny and just think I was dressing up for Halloween or showing a bunch of school spirit. but when no one would expect, I would hop over the fence and onto the field and join the cheerleaders and see how long I could get away with it before I got kicked off.

during the second quarter, good things started happening in the game, and it was my moment. I told the student section to move out of the way, hopped the fence, and stood by the cheerleaders. my really good friend Lindsey who also happens to be cheer captain, just starts laughing, hands me her pom poms, and says, "Stand up on my box while I take your picture! and you can lead a few cheers!" everyone looked confused (mostly because the cheerleaders dressed as zombies for Halloween and I just looked like a normal one in an ugly tennis skirt), but then they started laughing and cheering for me. so I led a few cheers from the cheer captain's box, front and center. I didn't care that I couldn't move my arms in sync with the other cheerleaders or that my pompom was in the wrong hand. it was so fun. I couldn't believe that I had the impulse to do it, and that I followed that impulse. so I decided to make the most out of it. after a few minutes, cheer captain needed her box back, so I just stood off to the side next to the JV squad and was completely off sync, but it was so funny to see all my friends walk into the game, look at me, look confused, and then start laughing. I didn't care. in that moment, I wasn't a tennis player or a senior in the student section. I was a Timpview cheerleader.

well, after like 20 minutes, the cheer coach finally notices that something isn't right, and someone let an impostor onto the field. she walks up to me and tells me that I stole a freshman's pompoms and when she comes back, I need to go back to the stands, and asked me why I was even down there. well, since I wasn't a real cheerleader, and it was my senior year so it was really the last time I could really do whatever I wanted, I said, "I'm cheering! It's Halloween! Only this one time!" and she is not amused and tells me not to go down there ever again because it's some liability thing, and I guess I sassed her some more, but as soon as the freshman came back, I returned her pompoms, and she looked very confused, but I didn't want to explain to her, so I just went back to the stands.

well, everyone was just laughing. I was greeted with, "you are my hero!" "you're a freaking legend!" "I could never have the confidence to do that!" and "you looked so good down there!"
and I felt good. people asked why I did it, and I said, "well, I just......wanted to do it. it's my senior year, and maybe it was kinda a senior prank." I knew I looked totally stupid down there, but I was having a good time, and I'm just glad that the cheerleaders didn't kick me off or tell me I was doing a bad job. so maybe the next time I get an impulse like that, I shouldn't act on it. but I'm just glad I could live to say I did it once. and it was indeed, the best Halloween ever. one week later, I'm still getting praised for it.

from class clowns to classy homecoming couple 2k15

I only update this thing after tennis tournaments and dates, right? well, there's still a tennis tournament I have to talk about, but the date was more important. last night, I went to my first AND last homecoming, and it was definitely a night for the books!

the last 2 girls choice dances I went to, I asked tennis players, and with both boys I wrote my name in tennis balls, because what does a tennis player love more than getting free tennis balls? not very many things, let me tell you. well, I guess Matt had the same idea as I do when asking tennis players, and when the doorbell rang and I found the sign and 3 cans of tennis balls on my porch, to say I was stoked was an understatement. not only was I going to homecoming, but I got 3 free cans of tennis balls! I figured since he gave me free tennis balls, I would need to figure out something just as great, if not greater, to answer him with. Matt is a golfer, and no one in the Castle family can even hold a golf club. So I needed to google "where to buy golf balls", actually ended up taking some from one of my golfer friends, and this is what I came up with. (also, Matt can spell my name right, and so can I! one of my great friends nicknamed me Merm, and once he started calling me that, it spread.)

well, I was pretty stoked for this date, to say the least. Matt and I have been friends since kindergarten. in first grade, our teacher had to call both our parents on the first day of school because we were "too disruptive". both of us had to turn our cards from green to yellow almost daily, and we even got on red a few times. neither of us were bad kids; I was just sassy, and Matt always wanted to have a good time. I knew this date would be nothing but good times. I was also really excited about our group. I've known most of the people since elementary school, so we pretty much all grew up together, and the ones who didn't go to elementary school with me, I've been friends with since either junior high or the beginning of high school. I knew everyone in my group, and it was just so much fun for all of us to get together and be in the same homecoming group! it was one of my favorite parts of the date.

at 11:30 on Saturday morning, the doorbell rings, and it's our neighbor from across the street. I thought it was Matt, so it was a bit of a let-down, but then our neighbor turns around and says, "who is driving that sweet Mustang?" and LO AND BEHOLD, it is my date. in a 1966 convertible Mustang. doesn't even go above 55 mph. a true classic. and I love old cars. sometimes, my (dad's) 2004 Hyundai Elantra just doesn't seem old enough for me. (except I did hit the range gate the night before trying to find a parking space at the Homecoming game, some guy told me "you can't park on the drivers range, there's no room, you need to back up" except he didn't tell me to move my car first, so I scraped my whole left side on the orange gate, so now my red Hyundai Elantra is sporting an orange paint scrape. so I guess it looks kinda old?) and it was SO MUCH FUN to sit shotgun in that car. it was a real treat.

our day date was playing soccer golf at East Bay Golf Course. soccer golf is just what it sounds like- soccer with the rules of golf. you're on a golf course, but instead of hitting a golf ball with a club, you have to kick a soccer ball into a hole with the least kicks. I lost track of my score after hole #3, but I probably lost or came really close to it. I played soccer in elementary school, but I was never very good at it, and my kicks never went very far. this proved to be true in soccer golf. once my kick went about 10 feet and everyone cheered for me. it was a great accomplishment. but it was so fun watching all the boys drop kick their balls and to laugh at myself. afterwards, we went to Sodalicious, which I have never been to until that day. I have always gone to Swig because it's closer, and a dirty diet coke is just a dirty diet coke. anywhere I can get one, I'm satisfied. but this one was an amazing dirty diet coke, and Sodalicious should be seeing me come back soon!

at 5:45 pm, Matt and his classy mustang returned to my house. and of course, my mom wanted to take 5,000 pictures of the car. then, we went to Matt's and his dad took loads of pictures as well, and then, all our group met to take real pictures.

the car

me, Matt, Noah, and Gillian

 couples: Fielding and Becca, Gavin and Meg, Gabe and Hailey H, Brady and Lindsey, Colson and Brianna, Alex and Kelsey, Matt and me, Seth and Hailey F, Brad and Cami, Noah and Gillian

 Hailey F, Rebecca, Megan, Hailey H, Lindsey, Brianna, Kelsey, me, Cami, and Gill

for dinner, we went to Sakura, a Japanese Tepanyaki grill. there was a griddle thing right at our table, so we got to watch the people cook our food for us. it was really exciting. the soup, the salad, and the fried vegetables reminded me of my time in Tokyo and eating at nice restaurants there. the fried rice was really good, and my steak was done a bit too well for my preference, but it was still pretty good. (I was the only girl who ordered steak. everyone else ordered chicken. I don't understand how girls don't like steak, but it's their loss, not mine.) the BYU football game was on that night, so every 5 seconds, the boys would check their phones: "they scored!" "TANNER MANGUM!" "yesssssss go Cougars!" after we ate, we went to Timpview for the dance. it was my first time going to a dance in the commons. every school dance I've been to has been anywhere except the commons, which is where most of the dances are held. the decorations were so cute, and it was so fun to see everyone! and slow dancing was super fun. Matt and I would not only sing the songs in our worst off-key voices, but we would also spin into other couples and whisper "KISS!" it was so funny. I know we are seniors and we aren't supposed to be immature, but like I said earlier, we have been punks since kindergarten, and I guess none of that has changed!

about an hour into the dance, Colson tells all the guys in the group that it's halftime and that we have to go, but then another slow dance comes on, so we have to wait. in the middle of the next song, all the guys in our group start chanting "BYU! BYU! BYU! BYU!" and then all the other guys at the dance joined in. it was pretty funny.

after we left, we drove to our good friend Josh's house (who hosted our Prom dinner ) to watch the BYU football game. our friend Zane also had an old vintage car, and both Matt and Zane honked at each other the whole way to prove that their horn was better, and that was really funny. watching the game was probably my favorite part of the date. we ate really good popcorn and ice cream, and it was a really exciting game to watch. Cougars took the lead until the 4th quarter, when UCLA scored a touchdown, and Tanner Mangum was in just the right spot for another Hail Mary, but instead, he threw an interception, and the Cougars lost, 23-24. but despite the loss, it was an exciting, close game, and it was funny to hear all the boys reactions: "no, you can't sit in my spot, it's bad karma!" "if the Cougars win, then 10,000 people will get baptized this week!" "no one even breathe in the last minute." "If Taysom Hill was in, then that would've been a touchdown!" "NO, that would've been a broken femur!" so many good times.

well, even though the Cougars lost, my date was a real winner! can't believe we are all seniors this year, and it was super fun being in a group with all my best friends from elementary school. we definitely grew up nicely!

(except Matt and I are still punks. but more mature, nice punks.)

what else have I been doing?

this summer has been quite a busy one! I say that every summer, but this one was far more busier than the last. I had no "lazy days" whatsoever because I would either be at work, on vacation, at tennis camp, tennis practice, tennis tournaments, at some mission call opening party/farewell after-party, and in my free time, I would either be practicing piano or hanging out with friends visiting Utah from other places. so I feel bad for all the "let's hang out this summer!" messages that I wrote in everyone's yearbook that didn't happen. and I already have my schedule and I start school in 2 days. so I better get this post up!

in June, I went to BYU tennis camp. most people stayed overnight, but I didn't because I live 5 minutes away. one of my best friends Grace and her sisters Isabel and Caroline were also there, and we ended up being in the same group! so we did a lot of drills together, conditioned together, and ate together. my favorite thing was playing matches against people from all over the country. (okay, different parts of Utah, Las Vegas, Idaho, and Arizona.) I was ranked 11 out of 30 in my group, which is REALLY good, and it meant that I would be playing a lot of dudes. sadly, I've never beat a dude in singles who isn't my brother or my dad. they are just stronger and hit with a lot of topspin. But I won a few games against them, which is a big deal. I also got to play singles against a girl from the school who won state tennis this year (and my school got SECOND PLACE TO) and she creamed me. but I did beat her in doubles. i also enjoyed playing more doubles. I'm definitely more of a singles player than a doubles player, and I feel a lot more comfortable covering the entire court than just one side. many times after I play a singles match, regardless of whether I win or lose, my opponent has told me, "holy crap you make me run! you wore me out!" or "I never know where your shots are going, but they always make it in, and I've never done so much running in my life!" or "you're so consistent it pisses me off!" (my personal fav). but in doubles, my strategy of outrunning my opponent doesn't work because there's two of them, and if I try to send them to the other side of the court, the net player almost always gets there first and poaches the shot. so, it's a lot of adjustment for me, but I'm glad I got to learn more about sharing the court and how to win a doubles match without outrunning your opponent. I also enjoyed being with all the coaches there. my private coach Francis was in charge of the matches, and it was nice to have a familiar coach who knows the way I play!

 Isabel, Grace, Caroline, and me. believe it or not, I'm the oldest in this group. but I'm 5 feet exactly, and for one drill, we were ranked by our height, so me, Caroline, and a bunch of 12 year olds were in a group. I'm 17 and no one except Caroline believed me. my height can be an advantage at times, but in more ways, a disadvantage. 

 Madi, Grace, and me. I played against Madi in my high school season and she beat me, but we moved past that and became really good friends that week

 some of the coaches: Francis, Nikki, Brian, Scott, Myriam-with-a-y, and Miriam-with-an-i. Francis and Nikki are both British, so it's very fun to be coached in a British accent, and I tend to listen to the instructions more. but I do love all my coaches. 

 Francis and me. Francis has been my private coach since last summer, and he has done wonders with my game. I went from being a JV alternate to being an official JV player! I've learned so much from him, not just about the physical game of tennis but the mental game as well, and it has seriously helped so much. except it can get annoying when I'm playing a match and I do something wrong and this British accent in my head tells me "low to high! remember to follow through! where are you standing? how much room did you give yourself? where did you contact the ball?"

Grace and I

the week after tennis camp, I went to my last girls camp. and it was pretty sweet. best girls camp ever. we went to a different camp than we usually go to, and this one had showers. and electricity. and a zip line and loads of other things. my favorite part though was the guest speakers. they were so real and talked about real stuff and how life isn't always perfect and how we really do need to trust in the Lord when that's all we can do. these people have been through everything. I'm serious. one of them lost her husband to cancer, another has always wanted to be married and have kids but that time hasn't come yet, another had a severely disabled son, one was a mother of 4 or 5 boys plus 20 of their friends (imagine my house x100), and one fell off a cliff in St George and was paralyzed from the chest down and is wheelchair bound. but these people, no matter what they've gone through, are some of the happiest people I've met. and I love how none of them said "everything happens for a reason." I mean, if you lose your husband to cancer and you have to think "well that happened for a reason", then that would suck. they all said that things just happen to us, and we don't know why, but we can either let them define us, or we can grow from them. I loved that.

at the end of July we went to Bear Lake with all my cousins on my dad's side. It was a much-needed vacation, except I felt super sick most of the week and the water was too rough to waterski, so I spent most of my time either playing tennis with my mom or on the beach with my cousins. except I did wakeboard one of the days. I took like no pictures since I was feeling like crap, so this 4 sentence summary will have to suffice.

finally, I had tennis tryouts these past 2 weeks. like I mentioned earlier, I went from being an alternate singles player to making OFFICIAL JV! I have never been so happy in my life. so many good people try out for the tennis team, and my coach doesn't do cuts. instead, she makes an alternate team, and basically, whenever they can play matches, she lets them, but they aren't guaranteed to play every match. I played every match except for 2 last season. but now, I get to go to every practice, play every match, and I have a guaranteed spot at region! except I'm more likely playing doubles than singles, but I don't even care. I'd rather be on JV than be an alternate again! so, hard work does really pay off! 

GLACIER

I got back from Glacier 2 weeks ago, but it feels like a month already. and I would've gotten this post up sooner except I worked every day last week, and I was at Bear Lake this week, so I'll try and get this up before tennis tryouts! well, my packing for this trip wasn't great quality. so, while everyone was packing, I was either at work or I was making cookies for my friend Jackson because his mission farewell was the next day. (well, think about it. your family is going hiking for a week in Montana, and your best friend is going to the Ukraine for 2 years and it's your last time seeing him and he loves chocolate chip cookies. I don't know about you, but making your friend cookies one last time is more important than being completely prepared.) also, Provo is pretty hot in the summer, so everyone (except my dad) thought that Montana wouldn't be cold or rainy. well, we were wrong. we packed no rain gear and we got rained on every single day. also, this was our first time taking a really long drive since......Yosemite. and we took that trip when I had just finished 7th grade, which was about 4 years ago. so unfortunately, over these 4 years, our family has gotten used to flying long distances and not driving for very long. and because I'm ADD, I forgot how much I hate sitting in a car for 12 hours and how restless it makes me, doing nothing but sitting there. I can't do anything exciting like reading or watching movies because I get carsick, so it was a new thing, being tortured for 12 hours. but about half of our road trip soundtrack consisted of U2 albums, and you can't go wrong with U2. so, thank you Bono for keeping me alive for at least 3 hours of the driving part.

we finally arrived in Kalispell, Montana 12 hours after we left. we stayed with (THIS IS ABOUT TO GET WAY CONFUSING) my mom's second cousin, Barry Wollenzien. and if any Wollenzien reads this, please do not get offended, but until we planned this trip, I had no idea my mom even had a cousin named Barry who was a park ranger at Glacier National Park in Montana. Planning this trip was the first time I even heard of his existence. Well, they are not first cousins, but second cousins. meaning their grandma's are sisters. and I know a lot of my second cousins, actually. some of them I am closer to than my first cousins. but I didn't even know that my mom knew her second cousins, and I didn't know that they had 4 kids, which were my third cousins. really, third cousins exist?! but we just simply referred to them as our "cousins". Barry and his wife Nancy have 4 kids: the oldest is on a mission, the one who's my age was either at work or asleep the entire time we were visiting so we never got to meet him, and the 2 youngest, Coleman and Reed, were really funny and made friends with my brothers quickly and assaulted them with Nerf guns and showed them how to fish in the river which ran through their property. and WOW their house was so pretty. I could never live out in the country, but whenever we've stayed with people who live out in the country, we love it. the houses are always so pretty, and the backyard is amazing. when we went on our New York trip and went to Philadelphia, we stayed with my dad's friend Bob who lives at least an hour outside Philly, and his backyard was practically a forest. the Wollenzien's backyard wasn't a forest, but it was huge and I heard that they like to shoot deer on their own property. (I only wish we could do that here in Provo.)

the first day, our family and Barry, Nancy, and Coleman (Reed went to play with a friend) drove up to Logan pass to hike the Highline Loop Trail. it took 7-8 hours, and it was 11.8 miles. I hiked that whole thing with an ankle brace on. my left ankle was already weak from a Prom injury (my sweet date Nate backflipped me playing bubble soccer for the day date, and I rolled my ankle while landing), and then I rolled it again in a tennis match. I was 2 games in and I ran forward to return a shot, and instead of hitting the ball, I rolled my ankle. but in the end that didn't matter, because I won the match, 8-6. so I played 12 more games on a weak ankle. (we only played a proset because of time.) well again, since I am so prepared, I had to borrow some socks from Nancy because I only packed ankle socks. in order for the brace to work effectively, my socks needed to go above the ankle. but since i was stupid, that didn't happen. but Nancy was a saint and let me use her above the ankle socks. at first, the weather was overcast and it was pretty nice. it was a bit chilly at first, but once we got moving, we were okay. but then, we started to get rained on, and this wasn't just a light drizzle. it started pouring. and then it was HAILING. and as I mentioned earlier, none of us were prepared except for the Wollenziens, who had raincoats and everything. that day, I decided to wear my tank top that was not made of dry-fit, and it didn't absorb anything. also, my Camelbak was leaking, so I was even more wet. and I didn't even have a jacket, just a long sleeved dry-fit. so I was soaked. Barry let me borrow his huge sweatshirt, which made it look like I had no shorts on. it kept me warm as we hiked to the chalet, which is some cabin type thing where people can stay overnight. they have a clothesline where we hung out our soaking wet clothes, and we just ate beef jerky and sat by a fire until we were ready to get going again. by the time that happened, it was hot. and our wet clothes dried out quickly, and we were all getting tired. but it was such a pretty hike and despite the bad weather, we all loved it. parts of it looked like it could've been in Switzerland or Germany. but no. just Montana.

 Coleman and Justin were inseparable on this hike

for dinner that night, Barry cooked my favorite thing in the world: STEAK. I LOVE STEAK. it is my favorite food and I have no idea why girls don't really like steak and why they eat chicken instead. because I LOVE STEAK. while I was eating dinner, I noticed that on the fridge, they set up some sort of shrine for their son who was on a mission, and there was a list of songs he should listen to when he got back (he wrote at the top: "ex. Scar Tissue by RHCP", so seeing that he likes Red Hot Chili Peppers like I do, he probably expected the suggestions to be just like that). well, the 2 songs on the list were "Happy" by Pharrell, and "Pompeii" by Bastille. well, Bastille is good. Pompeii might be a bit overplayed.....ok, a lot overplayed now, but their other hidden gem songs are SO GOOD. but Happy?! That song was good for maybe.....3 days. so I added a bunch of songs to that list, and I don't know if the parents appreciated it, but their missionary will definitely appreciate it when he gets home!

the next day was a hard day for all of us. we had to leave the Wollenzien's house and drive all around the park to lookout spots and small, shorter hikes, but the whole east side of the park was under construction. also, it was the day that my friend left on his mission, and even though this trip was a pretty good distraction, I was still really sad. but before we had to deal with road construction, we went to a hidden spot that Barry told us about, Lake MacDonald, and we literally......skipped rocks. for about a half hour. and it was so beautiful, and we all had a good time.

we did NOT plan this by the way.

after going to a few lookouts, we went to hike to St. Mary's falls. but all the parking lots were closed because of road construction, so we had to take a shuttle and they only ran every hour. we didn't have to wait that long to ride it to the hike, which was nice. and it was super pretty. we got to see 3 waterfalls, Virginia Falls, St Mary's falls, and an unnamed waterfall which Wesley insisted on naming "Wesley Castle falls" and Justin insisted on "Wesley Castle Memorial Falls, because that's what will happen to him after he tries to jump off the cliff into the river!" well, whatever it was named, it was super pretty. 

after the hike was when things started going completely downhill. we were all hungry, and everyone in my family gets hangry (hungry+angry) when we haven't had food for a while, but especially Wes. well, we walked back to the shuttle station, and there were loads of other people waiting too. the shuttle came after about 15 minutes, but it was already packed, and unlike Japan, where they cram as many people as they can fit into a moving vehicle, they can only fit as many people as they have seats for. my dad was going to sneak on, get dropped off at the parking lot, and drive the car back to pick up the rest of the family. but he got kicked off the shuttle. so he tried to hitchhike, and he failed. so then, my mom had her running shoes, and she would run to the parking lot, find the car, and pick us up. so she took off, and Wesley was getting very hangry, and he decided to climb a tree. well, you can't climb trees here, and my dad was trying to get him down, but since Wesley is hangry and he is a 14 year old boy who is missing some brain cells (as many 14 year olds are; I was in Japan when I was 14 and I had a few bad meltdowns out in public) and he is stubborn, he starts to argue and climb higher. well, since my dad is also stubborn, he won't stop arguing until Wes gets down. but then it turns into a full blown fight, Wesley accuses Dad of having a "sissy upbringing" (because Mom's cousin Barry did not have a sissy upbringing and was allowed to hunt sage hens and light Nerf balls on fire and throw them around as a teenager), and then my dad grounds him, he chucks a rock at either me or Justin but thankfully it misses, Dad punishes him more, and he just starts crying and lies down on the rocks. now mind you, Wesley is a normal 14 year old boy who just gets hangry and if he doesn't eat, he goes crazy. well, finally my mom comes back, we pick up 2 hitchhikers, and finally, we go to our hotel. Well, the hotel fire safety rules wouldn't let 5 people share a room, so my parents got their own, while I had to be in charge of my brothers. I thought it would be okay because we did this all the time in hotels in Japan, but no. Wesley was still in a bad mood, and Justin was scared that someone would break into our hotel room and rob us, I was just sad and tired, and none of us got to sleep quickly. but when we finally did, it felt so good, because we were ready for the next day.

the next day, we hiked to Grinnell Glacier, which was the first real glacier we got to see. and it was so pretty. but we didn't know how cold it would be that day, and since we didn't really pack well, Mom had to buy us hats. we had to take 2 boats to get to the trailhead, but the lake was so pretty and our boat tour guide wasn't too bad looking either

 I promise I have shorts on!

well, as you can see, the glacier was so pretty. and so was the lake that this trail overlooked. well, at the top, it started drizzling lightly, but we didn't really care, and eventually it stopped. however, about 20 minutes from the bottom of the trail on the way back, it started pouring. and hailing. and it was so bad, it soaked through all our clothes, and our shoes were wet, everything was wet, and it was freezing. and mind you, all I have is my Timpview Tennis warm up jacket. when we finally got to the bottom, we just stayed in the shelter while we waited for the storm to pass so the boat could run again. we waited for about a half hour, returned to the lodge, and sat by a fire, tried to dry out our clothes, changed in the bathrooms, and headed out to Helena to stay in another hotel. it rained for a while, but when it stopped, we were driving on the freeway, and this bird is flying, but our car is going too fast for the bird to move, so it crashes into our windshield, bounces, hits it again, and dies. it left its imprint on the windshield, and some of its feathers got caught in our windshield wipers! eventually, they came out. but that was pretty funny. 

well, it was a great vacation, even though we weren't very prepared for the weather. and it was so pretty and the pictures don't even do justice. you have to see it in real life. and we took loads more, but these ones were the best ones. so, if any of you nonexistent blog readers want to visit, please be prepared for ALL WEATHER, especially rain. then you will be fine. but dang. it's beautiful up there, and I've never seen anything like it. and I ate more beef jerky that week than in my entire life!