June 28-I wear my sunglasses at night

Jake and I rocked our shades going into rehearsal today. Boo-yah!

June 27-Stufffffff to do. . .WITH EMILY!

Emily is home from China and I LOVE her. We've been going around and doing errands with each other for the past four days (I'm actually writing this post on the 30th). I feel so productive and happy :)

June-26 Day of Rest

I spent my Sunday afternoon outside. I enjoyed the weather and whatnot, and I got cute pictures of some cats! haha...

Fat fat fat lazy cat

My favorite one. :D

Chase

He's practically modeling for me

On the prowl

Enjoying the weather

June 25-Potter Time

I went shopping with Steph and Jess today. What did we buy? Harry Potter shirts! More specifically, HP7P2 shirts! Naturally we had to have a photoshoot!

Ron vomiting slugs while Draco laughs and Harry defends

June 24- L.A.P.D

Day 2 of the summer of dreams and we all dressed up like we're in the 50's. We're so cool.

June 23- Summer of Dreams

Me, Tayla, and. . . Seth?

His life is so hard

The serious gamers (TJ and Henry)

. . .Dan

My friends and I have an annual (uh, this is the second year) celebration called Summer of Dreams. Where basically we get together and play video games. . .lots and lots of video games. . .for a few days straight. It's WAY fun, because EVERYONE is there at one point or another. So, if you stay the whole time then you get to see everyone! I even got to hang out with the long departed Stuart for a while. :)

June 22-Hot Nubian Dancing

This is where we'll be performing.

I went to my first rehearsal today. Choreography. Choreography. Choreography. It's pretty sweet stuff! I'm excited for it to come together. . .also a little nervous. . . Tomorrow I get to go learn lifts; I decided it's easier on the ice. :/ Mainly because those lifts weren't as high off the ground, and if they were, there were a few boys involved instead of just one. yeah. . .

Also, my directors seem to be very very nice, and the choreographer as well. :)

June 22-I'm Back.

Dear musical theater,
Watch out.
I'm back!
-Nikole

That's right, friends and followers, I made it into Aida! What a strange thing to occur. . .But I'm excited!!

Also, today was Andrew's birthday. I love that kid. He's so. . .what's the word? Oh yeah. AMAZING! I'm gonna miss him lots when he's in Japan for the next two years, but I look forward to writing him.

June 21- Family

I walked a lot of dogs today and cleaned a lot of yards. Okay, not really four dogs, three yards, but it seemed like a lot. Oh, and I had a job interview. I really really suck at those (refer to past post "April 19-the BEST Interview") It went kinda like that. Not great. haha, anyway, I ended up at the McGuires (as usual) and I really love these guys.

I didn't actually see Mama or Papa, but Stuart was there, as well as Seth and Dan. My goal this summer was to get Seth to go to Taki or Bridal Veil; I really really doubted that there would be any chance of this happening. Ya see, if you look up "homebody" in the dictionary, you get a very accurate description of Seth (picture included). So today when they were vaguely thinking of what video game to play, as usual, and I was vaguely trying to care, I suggested we go to Bridal Veil, half-joking. . .okay whole-joking, because I knew I would get a resounding "NO" from everyone.

But guess what.

Seth, SETH MCGUIRE, homebody extraordinaire, said "Let's just go". He did! And he talked a lot about how it was just to humor me so he can play more games I hate and blah blah blah, but he said yes! And he went! It wasn't the most adventurous time there, mostly because Stu and Seth refused to actually climb the falls, which is more than half the fun, but I was just so happy they went!

We got back, TJ joined us and we played videogames. Well they did. I slept.

But ya know what? I spend a lot of time with these guys and they're like my brothers, and Mama is like, well, a mama, and Papa is kind of a papa, and these people, well, they're family. And I love them so much.

June 20-Happy Father's Day!

I made Papa McGuire a BBBB cake (Basketball Butter-cream cake with Butterscotch filling). I'm clever right! Right? Right. Uhhh, A BUNNY WALKS INTO A LIBRARY! 

Anyway, Seth and I are learning a guitar duet. :) This is it, if you care to listen. We're gonna be so cool. I had a lot of fun today at the McGuire's. A+

June 18-Blisters, Strawberries, and Handcuffs

I went to a followup dance audition as a result of my sudden singing audition yesterday. It was WAY fun! I did a lot of cool moves that made me feel like I actually was a ballroom dancer, even though I've never done any ballroom in my life. haha. I just felt way cool.

Then I went to my dad's for a Father's Day BBQ. We had desert first, which is the way to go, right??

Finally, I finished up my Saturday by going to a rodeo. It was SO fun. My friend and I had quite the fun time watching various rodeo-type activities and eating strawberries and cream. Mmmmm. It was part of Strawberry Days up in Pleasant Grove.

Strawberries and cream

Annnnnd this is how my night ended.

Yes those are police lights through his rather dirty truck back window.

Uh. It was exciting..?

June 17-Impromptu Audition

Firstly, I know I skipped the 15th, but I'll make it to you, I promise! Somehow. . .maybe. Anyway, today I went shopping with my sister and picked up a new shirt and saweet shades. I felt cool.

This is how awesomely gaudy I was

After that I accompanied my friend Jake at an audition for Aida at the Scera. Wellllllll, I don't know what happened, but I was there, and I just suddenly wanted to audition too. . .? There are a few things to do and not do at auditions. DO dress nicely. DON'T wear everyday whatevs clothes. DO accessorize subtly or not at all. DON'T wear 500 pounds of your most flashy jewelry and a twenties feather headband. DO find an accompaniment or CD. DON'T sing a Capella or accompany yourself. And so on. . I turned in my little resume-less paper slip, introduced myself (in my fancy jewelry, jeans, and tennis shoes), and proceeded to the piano where I sang a pop-song and improvised the piano part. I'm so smart. . .

But, hey, totally got called back. Hopefully for a dancer, because that would be WAY fun. I won't be too hurt if I don't get in, though, because I wasn't even planning on trying. :)

Anyway, then Spencer (who made me the cutest/coolest book ever as a late birthday present!!!!!!!) Andrew (who tuned a guitar using physics. I can explain how if you're dying to know) Steve (who's Steve) Stephanie (the Peruvian), and Abby (aka Abigail the Avenger) made a horror movie trailer. It was pretty fun. :)

June 16-I'm here to walk dogs and chew bubblegum, and I'm all out of bubblegum (gruff man voice)

I got a new client today.

Zeke. AND Zeus. Both are very very very massive Mastiffs. THEY'RE FREAKING HUGE!!!! Okay, backing up. So, I got to this dude's house and was instructed to go in through the back gate, clean the yard,  and grab Zeke and go. Simple. My instructions were full of terrible lies! I made my way past the owner's FOUR garages, swimming pool, basketball court, batting cage, trampoline, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, and jungle gym to the yard where I dug up these big dog's big mess. So that was a challenge in itself. I won't go into details, but this yard was the hardest nastiest thing to clean eva'. Then I tried to lasso Zeke with the leash and get this quest, if you will, over with.

He aint havin none of that.

This GINORMOUS dog was growling, barking, and simply terrifying me. I'm not scared of dogs ever! I love 'em, love 'em, love 'em, but not today. I was petrified. Eventually, I called my boss, and he got the owner to come and get Zeke leashed and ready to go. I was very happy that I got to leave Zeus behind; he was even more terrifying.

Zeke could easily knock me down and drag me around; I know, because he easily knocked me down and dragged me around. It wasn't exactly the best walk ever, but I finally got him to calm down and had quite the pleasant conversation with him.

Me: "I think every time I take you for a walk I'll dress up really hot and get a guy that lives around here to buy me tons of stuff, eh?"
Zeke: . . . .

And other similar conversations. Anyway, it was fun, I guess (totally wasn't). I like Zeke well enough, and maybe we'll get to be close one day, but for now, I'd like to stick with my little dogs at home. (I think I kinda know how the sandlot kids felt)

The hair acting as a bandit mask really adds to this picture.

June 14-Family History. . .a boring mystery.

Direct quote from Mama's blog " Went to my first Family History class on Sunday and enjoyed it so much I went again today"  

Now I'm going to tell you why she's 100% wrong. Ahem, BORING! I was interested all of three seconds. I don't know why. . .perhaps it's because I didn't really learn anything new, or because they couldn't trace my records too far, but for whatever reason, it was boring! I've done indexing before, and I actually really liked it. You would think that that would be more boring since it isn't my family, but that was/is not the case at all. Boring boring boring boring boring. And when I got home, what did I do? Nothing. Which was

(drumroll)

boring. 

I may or may not but certainly did steal this photo from Denise. . .

Someone find me friends who actually live in Provo. Thank you. :P

Also, I said "boring" 11 times.

June 13-Mondays

I pointed out to Mama today that my blog posts are getting longer and longer, I basically write novels nowadays, yeah? But I kinda like it. I mean, it's a journal now. An online very not personal journal, but a journal. And if I make $60 shoveling dog poo, then I can turn it into a book. ;)

“Get a notebook, my young folks, a journal that will last through all time, and maybe the angels may quote from it for eternity,” -President Spencer W. Kimball.

Although I'm not sure how keen I am on angels quoting ". .if I make $60 shoveling dog poo. . ." for all eternity, but I'll take my chances. There's some advantages and disadvantages of having an online journal as opposed to an actual book-type, though. Advantages: Easy to post pictures, friends can read it, easy to do every day, others that I can't think of right now. Disadvantages: Friends can read it. In a bookish journal (bookish as in book-like, not the actual definition) you can literally write whatever, and if you sound like an idiot because your upset and not thinking, then that's okay. Whatever. Who cares? But on a blogish journal, everyone thinks your an idiot, you can't take it back, and other bad consequences. So on my blogish journal, I can't write everything and that's annoying because sometimes I really want to. Oh well. Onward.

Mondays have a terrible reputation in the world of being, well, terrible. And I daresay that today, Monday lived up to it's reputation. Jerk. I worked, ya know, walkin dogs and stuff like I do. At some point I went over to the McGuire's and talked to Mama for a while.That's where I nabbed this bad-boy (picture not the bee. . .I'm a-scared of bees)

June 12-SUNDAY, SUnday, SuNdAy! Monster Truck Rally!

Well I most certainly didn't go to a Monster Truck anything today, but I thought it could be a fun title maybe. Anywho, I accidentally slept through Sacrament Meeting today, which was okay, because two great things came out of it. 1. I got some extra sleep 2. I took the sacrament at my sister's ward where President Ferrin spoke. He's awesome. "Protect your families from the evil influences of Satan and the Red Sox" haha, but really, he's amazingly spiritual.

"Simply don't follow the enemy of your soul, and don't fear him. Just love God." -President Ferrin

I was kinda bad in Relief Society though ;). During announcements the secretary, Muffin, demanded that we all get our pictures taken after class. My grandma leaned over and told me to "pretend we didn't hear this and try to leave as quickly and casually as possible". Anyway, I stole her nook and drew a picture.

I don't think the teacher appreciated my grandma snorting back laughs during the lesson. Oops. Our plan didn't work either, Muffin cornered us both as we left. Snap.

June 11-Best Day Ever Again! / Skyler's Birthday / I Went to the Wrong Family's Reunion. . .I don't know where my family is / I don't know what to title this

Today was Skyler's birthday and one of the funnest (most fun?) days I have ever had!!! I drove up to Logan (which is really pretty and green) and met up with his mom. She's great, by the way! Then the two of us went up to Camp Limabean (that's what I decided to call it) for his family reunion.

Uh, okay, his family is like super awesome! His sister is way cute, fun, and talented. His mom is funny, kind, and amazing. His dad is like. . .Clint Eastwood. (?)

Anyway, when I first got there I was roped into a game of volleyball which was torturous for everyone, I'm sure. I didn't get a picture, so I drew one.

This is a simplified version. .there were a lot more people present.

It was still fun :) But here comes the real pictures. There are many, so be prepared.

Swinging! I could actually do that.

Look at how cute! This kid is a total card.

Also cute.

They put money and candy in a big ol' pile of sawdust and we all dug around for it. It was way fun :)

Skyler's sawdust winnings.

 And the fun continues!

So. . .you basically toss these golf ball string contraptions at these pvc ladder contraptions. :) If you wrap one of the ball thingys around a pvc thingy you get a point. The higher up, the more points.

There was a duck race. We picked the coolest ninja ducks!

 We ran away to have our own mini adventure. . .probably to his grandmother's (aka Mimi's) dismay.

Super full river.

Mud

. . We're in the ick-o mud pretty deep.

We might be a little more than a little dirty. .

How deep? Very deep.

Old mountain man Skyler. His walking stick proved helpful. . .maybe

Snot Nose? Super Nasty? Silly Ninjas? Oh yeah. Skyler Nikole

A true man is one who isn't afraid to get dirty. Right?

可爱吗？(cute?)

We tottttttaaaaalllly wrote a song.

Can you spot our ninjas?

Defeat.

Yes!

No.

Henry. Apparently visible to me only?

 Okay, so thanks to my grandma and sister, I think Skyler's birthday gift turned out pretty nice. It was my idea to woodburn, but my sister chose the box.

What I made Skyler.

 My grandma told me that I should give the dollar shirt to a missionary friend, and my sister picked the tie tac. Kinda.(Holly: What does he like? Me: Uh, sports and stuff. Holly: Does he like basketball? Me: Does he like basketball? Does Skyler like basketball? Skyler WILCOX? Does he like it? Why yes. Yes he does.) I approved. BUT it was MY idea to put the tie tac on the dollar. . .so there.

 Finally, Skyler treated me to Aggie ice cream! Which driving home, I realized was kind of lame of me to let him do. It was his birthday! I should have treated him to the most amazing ice cream ever. I'm lame. :(

On the way from the Aggie Ice Cream Place to his house, Skyler drove by my favorite temple :) You know when you fall and you get that little heart beat skip thing? I don't know if it was because I got to see one of the most beautiful interesting temples in the world or if it was because Skyler was nice enough to let me. .but that happened.:)

In any case, today was a really great day. I met a lot of incredible people, became a photographer, lost epically at most everything, enjoyed the sun, had a mini adventure, laughed A LOT, and ate lots of good food. So thank you Skyler for the great day. And thank you Skyler's family. :)