End of Summer

On July 15th, an awesome movie came out in theaters!! Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. I was so excited for this movie because this one is my favorite book of the series. I do love the 7th one because it ends everthing but I just love the 6th book the best for some reason. We went the day it came out and only had to wait an hour! I heard of people waiting for 2 or more hours. The midnight showing had people waiting in line since 5 p.m. Even though I do love movies and Harry Potter, I could never do that. Anyways, the movie was fantastic! I loved it!! I just wish they didn't take out the fight scene at the end of the book.. Oh well it was still soooo cool!

Dumbledore and Harry

(I actually liked the actor that played Dumbledore the best in this movie. He was almost how I pictured him in the books. He didn't act crazy and mean to Harry like he did in the 4th movie. It was much better.) Malfoy & Snape.. the "bad" guys.

Hermione and Professor Slughorn

(The man who played the Professor was alright. He wasn't exactly how I imagined him in the book. But I guess he'll do. And also, Hermione was actually really, really good in this movie! She didn't overreact and Scott & I were pleased with her acting.)

Ginny & Ron

(Ron was so funny in the movie - I think he is a pretty good actor for what he does.)

Okay enough about the Harry Potter until the next movie. :) hehe.. Well, these pictures are of our new table that we bought April of 2008. We bought this table for $30 on KSL (its like a craigslist.com) and we wanted to refinish it for our place. We have a nice table but this one is better. So Scott is finally getting around to refinishing it. It is looking good so far and I can't wait for it to be done! We are going to do a cherry-red woodstain on the chairs and table too. It will look good :)

At the end of July, Sam, Cherri, Logan, Blair, and Annalee all came up for a cousin wedding. We had the honor of having Logan, Blair, and Annalee at our place. It was so much fun having a little baby around! She is a cute little girl and such a blast! And we're expecting another little niece on this side of the family and we're very excited!!!

Scott is absolutely adorable with children. He has always been really good with the sunbeams but he is sooooo cute with lil babies. Scott will be an amazing dad and he is already such a fun uncle! Annalee loved having Scott take her around and find the cat and dog. She adores him and I can see why.

Do you remember my orchids that Scott got me for Valentine's Day? If not, well you can go look back in February on my blog and see them. They are still doing really well and blossoming so much! It has been so much fun taking care of them and watching them change. The only thing is that we are now getting a different pot for them so they can stretch their lil roots and grow some more. So we did and I don't know why but we took some pics.

Scott and me with my crazy face

Me and Scott with his crazy face

Entertainment

Okay, another funny commercial! I know its a beer commercial but its hilarious! I just laugh everytime the old man gets hit with the can. Isn't that horrible?!

Balla !

Well Scott surprised me yesterday afternoon when I came home with this! He put the Michael Jordan logo on the back of my car! I can't tell you how freakin excited I was!!! I had told him I wanted it on my future truck, (but our future might not have that truck in it, oh well..) so he put it on my car right now. I feel like such a balla! haha jk

And yes I am cool in this picture lol
Also, we got this cool package from my mother the other day. She got us some new tennis shoes! Scott hadn't had new tennis shoes in over 6 years and she decided to get us both new shoes. It was not necessary but very sweet of her to do so. We both love our shoes and love to wear them around. Funny story - After we had got our new shoes that day, we took Meli on a walk around our neighborhood cuz we wanted to try out the new shoes. We didn't realize this until we started walking, but we both had white shirts on, with our black Addidas sweat pants, and white Nike tennis shoes. I am sure we just looked so dang cute - this matching couple walking their weenie dog around the block.

My new shoes

Scott's new shoes

Our new shoes together

Ouray, Colorado

For the 4th of July, Scott & I went to Ouray, Colorado to stay with his aunt & uncle at their place. We spent time with in-laws, cousins, and friends and just had a grand time! I had never been to Colorado before and if no one has, it is absolutely gorgeous! I loved every minute there and can't wait to go back.

Here is Meli on the drive up to Colorado. I made her sit in the back because her "spear-like paws" hurt me when she walks all over my legs. Its annoying lol

Before we went to Ouray, we stopped at Telluride. Scott's Aunt Jean & Uncle Bill were there with everyone else and were going to hike down the mountain. Isn't this a gorgeous view? We took the gondola up and we were even allowed to take our dogs. So the weenie dog got quite the exercise when we hiked down the mountain. I think she dropped like 4 pounds hah!Amanda, Callie, Weston, Scott, Meli, Me Telluride from the other side of the mountain

I'm showing you were we are at on the map! Telluride is also a ski resort and it is HUGE! Look at all the different places you can go skiing!

Lupine flowers, they are so pretty and cool

This is the Colorado State Flower. Aunt Jean told me what it was called but I don't remember.

Over in Ouray, we went to the Black Canyon Falls. They were so pretty and amazing!

Scott overlooking the small town of Ouray

Black Canyon Falls

I thought that this might've been a joke, but there really are tons of lil chipmunks just running around. And they are so cute I wanted one!

This is a little stream by Scott's aunt's house. When you follow it you actually come across a beautiful waterfall.

Weenie dog loves water!

We are hiking up to the waterfall

Meli & Scottie after crossing the stream

Soooooo pretty

On the 4th of July, this town has lots of activities going on. They had this tournament between two couples spraying a fire hose at each other and seeing who could last the longest. It was the most funnest thing I have ever seen and I think I should compete next time!

These couples in the blue and yellow were actually girls!!

Billy being a goof

Here's another couple but these are guys

The firework show was incredible! We went down with some of Scott's cousin's friends to the park and watched them. We could see them perfectly because they shot up right between the mountains in plain, perfect view. My camera wasn't that amazing at getting pics, but they are still "hecka" cool - (courtesy of Kirk).

The weenie dog found Cutler Creek and just had to show Casey & Kimber that she is missing them! :) lol

Here is the grand finale of the fireworks. It's pretty neat!

This is the fire hose fight. Sorry about the beginning, the water came over to where we were standing and we got soaked.

The adventerous Meli crossing the humungous river!

Better Days

On June 11th my Grandpa Bryant passed away. He had been suffering from strokes for about a couple of months and the week before he passed, he got pneumonia.

The week before, Scott and I were able to go visit him in St. George, where he lives, on our way back home from Arizona. He was staying in the hospital and since we got there pretty late, my grandma wasn't around and he was actually going to sleep. I went in and said hello and to be honest, I'm not quite sure if he recognized who I was. He was really out of it and towards the end of our visit kept falling asleep. It was so sad to see my grandpa in that state. He had lost a lot of weight, and he didn't even sound or look like the grandpa I knew. I only got to visit with him for 10 minutes and then we left. He was so tired I didn't want to keep him awake. I had the feeling that those would be my last times with him, and so I basically told him I loved him and kissed him on his forehead. I have never experienced anything like that. No one in my family has died yet and so this was really hard for me.

At his funeral though, it was so wonderful to be with my family and to realize that he is not in pain anymore and he is with his own parents right now.

My dad spoke about him and his life and I actually learned a few things that I didn't know about him. For example: My grandma, dad, and aunts have been LDS their whole lives. He always accepted that fact but never accepted the gospel. He was very kind about it but didn't feel the need to join the church. One evening, some other kind of missionaries (not from the LDS church) came up to their house. My grandpa was outside with the dog smoking a cigarette and they asked if he would be interested in their church. He told them that the whole family were mormons so they didn't need their lesson.

Anyways, my uncle spoke more about the spiritual side of things. Towards the last few years of my grandpa's life, he started watching conferences with my grandma. Apparently he loved Pres. Hinckley. He always kept saying, "Now there's a man with common sense." He thought Pres. Hinckley was his best friend but Pres. Hinckley didn't even know it. :) Like my uncle said about my stubborn grandpa, I think all the evidence was just too strong for him, that he couldn't just not join the church. He knew in his heart it was true, and he couldn't stay away from it any longer. He had a very strong testimony, and knew how important it was to be apart of this church. My uncle also spoke on how death is apart of life. We need to experience this so that we can all learn and grow from it. We all knew that this would happen, and we all accepted this fact of life. For some reason it comforted me very much.

It was a sad day when he passed away, yet I didn't find myself crying like I did when I last saw him alive. I think it is because I know I will see him again. This isn't just some fairy tale or something that you just think will happen. I know. I will miss him while he is not on this earth. But I know he will serve where he needs to serve right now, and he is watching over us and our families. It is so important to do all the things we are asked to do so that someday, we all can be with our families and friends once again.

There's No Place Like Home

Here is my last post of our trip to Arizona. I love pictures, so I hope you enjoy all the pics I put on. :)

This is Red Mountain! I know it's not as big as other mountains, but I do think it is rather pretty.

My mom and dad started biking a lot lately. Dad got into it because he is in the Bishopric and was over the Boy Scouts. He had to bike ride with them for 50 miles and my mom liked the idea of it and now bike rides every day. She's so cute with her helmet on! Yes, I shot this big gun, aka AR-15! It got heavy after a lil while of holding it. But it was really cool. Scott & I went out with Cherri and Sam to go shooting one morning. It was really fun shooting all these different sorts of guns and trying to hit the targets that we set up. One of my favorite activities that we did.

And I shot this gallon of water with the AR-15. I was very proud of myself! It got BLASTED!

We also went to the temple one night while we were there and did some family names. It was really great, the Spirit was strong and I loved being with my family.

Blair, me, Cherri

Scott, Sam, Logan

Annalee liked playing on our piano! She is so good already! ;)

The last night while we were there, we went outside to look at the stars. My mother has gotten into stargazing a ton. She has learned a lot about the planets and the galaxy that she teaches me stuff! It wasn't the clearest night so we couldn't find Jupiter, but we looked at the moon and that was AMAZING! I'm so proud of you mom!

We went out to the movies too. We went with my family and Cherri to see the movie 'Up'. I recommend that to anyone who likes the animated films! It was hilarious and soooo adorable! Scott, Tanner, Morgan, and I also went and saw the Terminator movie. It was pretty sweet!

This is on our drive home. Meli loved to stick her head out the window when we would slow down.