Blogs get really long when you don't post in a while, sorry

We were finally able to go camping this last weekend with friends and use our tent we got for Christmas. I sure miss going camping with my family. I missed having my step-dad help set up the tent and cook yummy camping grub. Luckily we had some great cooks with us last weekend so I didn't have to try everything for the first time. I just made sandwiches for lunch so it wasn't that hard. We went to Rickets Glen and saw some pretty neat waterfalls. I highly recommend going there and hiking down hill the whole time (that's what we did). We had a ton of fun especially hearing the funny noises coming from a neighboring tent during the night :).







This was my walking buddy, Ethan Greggerson.




Here's a couple pictures from when we went to the D.C. zoo, where I had one of my best moments in my life to see my favorite animal in the whole world (a Giant Panda) in real life! Thanks for the pics Searles!




A couple weeks ago, we got a text from our friend Matty, who had just been called up to AAA with the Tampa Bay Rays. He told us he was going to be playing in Scranton so we decided to make the trip up there to watch him play. He was the catcher the whole game and did awesome! It was really fun to be at the game, but Ty said it wasn't the most exciting of games because it was 0-0 for thirteen innings. Brutal! We were also not smart enough to wear warm clothes (Scranton is up in the Poconos) so it was really cold and I got sick. I am still coughing, but it was totally worth it to go and see him play. We would do it again in a heart beat. What an adventure!




A little while ago my aunt Diane, my cousin whitney and her friend Madi came up to visit us and go to NYC for the girls' senior trip. It was sooo much fun to be with them. I love hanging out with just "the girls" sometimes. We were able to see the Little Mermaid on Broadway which was a great play. Congrats on graduating high school you guys. They were so fun! I am the oldest girl cousin on my mom's side and all of my little cousins I babysat for growing up have all been starting to graduate high school. It makes me feel old.





ummm....we had to go to the Hershey Chocolate store. I was kinda obsessed with making chocolate milk with this syrup growing up and this is what I felt like doing many times.


I thought it was pretty cool that we saw Michael Phelps racing while we were in times square. It was pretty sweet to hear a bazillion people watching the big screen and cheer for him all at once.


One of our fun vacations this summer was to go to Boston with some friends for a weekend and see the Red Socks stadium. Unfortunately my grandfather Bob Pike died of Pancreatic cancer and so I was able to fly to Pasadena to attend his funeral. My grandpa Sheffield (my maiden name-my biological dad's father) died when I was like 2 years old and my grandma re-married when I was around four. My grandma and him came out to visit my brother and me every year in Utah and we were able to visit them a few times. I felt like I should go visit them with my brother earlier this year and I'm so glad I did. We were able to spend our last time with grandpa. He was a great person and had a great love for the gospel! Everyone will miss him so much.

The great thing about going to Pasadena was that I was able to see my dad's side of the family who I don't get to see all that much. There is almost 50 grandkids and over twenty great-grand kids. I saw my dad there and his wife Jean. It was fun to see the whole fam. together. Here is a picture of almost all of us.




While I was in California, Tyler went as a fifth wheel and rode up and stayed in a hotel in Boston with the Searles and Carrs (and met up with the Flinders). He didn't want to miss out on the Boston trip so the Carrs were nice enough to let him go up in their car without a wife. Ty wanted to write about Boston:

Alright, I am squeezing in a little into my wife's blog and telling about my trip to Boston. It was awesome! It was Labor Day weekend and I hitched a ride up with Greg and Jenna Carr to Boston. We had some traffic, so it took a lot longer than we thought to get there. We got to the hotel late and crashed, ready to see Boston the next day. We started out Saturday with a trip around Boston's historical sites on the Freedom Trail. We took a lot of pictures and had a lot of fun. Along the way, we were able to see a bunch of old churches, buildings, cemeteries, and sites from the American Revolution. I loved seeing the Old North Church ("One if by land, two if by sea"), the U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides), and the Bunker Hill memorial. Along the way, we stopped to take a break at the famous Mike's Pastries and I had a cookie and a cannoli. Good stuff. When we went to Bunker Hill, we decided it would be a good idea to climb to the top of the memorial (like 350 steps to the top) and I was dead. My legs were seriously hurting and I was regretting that decision the rest of the weekend.






After our tour of the city, it was time for the highlight of the trip, going to a Red Sox game at Fenway Park! I don't even know how to describe how cool this experience was. I have been to a lot of stadiums and watched a lot of baseball games, but none can come close to the experience of going to Fenway Park and watching the Red Sox. Now, I am not necessarily a big Sox fan, but after going to Fenway, I think that I have become one.







The trip to the game started with us trying to find a parking spot. We were so excited to get in the park that we probably did not take the cheapest route, We ended up parking about a block away from Fenway for like 30 bucks. Then, we had the task of trying to get tickets. Believe me, there are plenty of scalpers at Fenway that are more than willing to sell tickets to out-of-towners like us. We found a guy who told us he had 6 tickets together, so we met him in an ATM entrance and bought the tickets for like $70 a piece. We probably could have waited and gotten tickets for cheaper later, but we just wanted to get in there. Next, I went to the Red Sox store to buy myself a Big Pappy shirt and a Sox hat. The game was great and the atmosphere in Fenway is unbeatable. Pedroia had a big game and the Red Sox beat the White Sox. It was also fun to see my favorite player of all-time, Ken Griffey Jr., playing for the White Sox.

The next day, we went on a Sunday trip up the coast of Maine and got to see a bunch of lighthouses. It was beautiful. We didn't have enough time to eat at the Lobster Shack (I wanted to bad) because we had to make it back to Boston to pick up Ashley flying in from California.






(Ashley again) On Sunday I decided instead of flying back to Philly, I would meet everyone in Boston to have a little fun. So on Monday we took the duck tour of Boston (a must see) and took the road trip home. So including my two layovers I was able to go to 9 different states in one weekend trip!!!! I have not been able to do that before.