Chris Turns 27!

Chris always forgets how old he is. I have to remind him, "You're 27!" Oh ya. He said once your passed 21 it really doesn't matter. Does that mean my birthdays won't matter anymore? I guess also at 27 things just start falling a part... Chris's running shoes ripped while he was playing basketball at the gym, his soccer soles are completely off, his car had maintenance issues, and his computer is hanging on its last thread. I guess 27 is just that age.

Only one more week until we are in Utah! I am so excited! I had a strategic game plan in my head on how to ask Dan if I could possibly work my internship in Utah. I must have had a convincing argument because he agreed! I actually did not see it coming, 6 weeks working remotely? Now that is commitment. Well, on the plus side I will be busy, making money, and be able to go back and have a job. On the down side, it was not the vacation I was craving but I think it is for the best in the long run. We always make the best of when we see each other. We see each other on the weekends and then say Sayanara on the weekdays. But that is almost to an end, thank goodness. After this week, we will pretty much be together...except when he goes out for interviews...although those are not too long :). We went to Schlitterbahn for his birthday like we did last year. Except this year we went to the Schlitterbahn in Galveston. This water park was so much better than the one in New Braunfels. We had to wait 2 hours for one ride last year compared to this year we got on all the rides the first hour. The water park is priceless. Seeing all the big Texans strut their stuff like it's nobodies business. The lazy river though, that is a whole other story. There is this certain area of the lazy river where there is a current that makes a huge wave. Everyone lines up right before it is about to go. I saw the menacing look in Chris's eyes that gleamed, "I'm going to destroy you." Oh that poor lady. She had her glasses and shoes and everything on her. They met eyes and Chris pushed her with the current making her do a backflip in her tube and loosing all her accessories. I saw the whole thing, the only witness. Oh that poor lady, she just didn't know what was coming. She will probably never go on the lazy river again. There was one ride in the park no one was going on. It had no lines but the ride next to it had about a 20 min. wait. We ran up to the one no one was in line, and it was the best one of the day! I don't know why there were no people in line  but I think the asian lifeguard working there was a little confused when we kept showing up. Later that night we went to Kemah and saw some fireworks. The fireworks were so much better than the ones from 4th of July. We also got a free piece of cake from a restaurant we went to eat at. So we shared it on the pier entranced by the fireworks, I hope it was a good birthday. Not to mention Chris got his sandals and blue ray that he wanted so badly :). This week we were saddened to here about the homicide in Aurora Colorado. I woke up that morning on Chris's birthday for him to tell me there was a shooting on his birthday. I couldn't believe it. We had bought tickets for Dark Knight Rises and didn't know if we should go. I don't know how a person gets to that point where they just want to shoot harmless civilians. 

Lewis and Jesse came to Galveston to make fajitas and watch the Dark Knight Rises, not to mention I baked my first pie in honor of Chris's birthday. It's always a good time with those two. I forgot how cool IMAX movies are, I felt like I was in the movie. Was it too soon, it was the question pending in everyones head. The gunshots in the movie echoed in the theatre making the movie even more scary. I guess you really are never safe. 

Can't wait for next week!

Love,

Cameryn 

Mom comes to Austin

I was so happy to see my mom in Austin this weekend. Although it was a short trip, it was a much needed trip, I missed my mom! Most of the weekend was stormy with lots of rain and lightning. We ended up going to two movies and getting movie butter popcorn :). We saw The Amazing Spiderman--Not very good, maybe if I was 13 & we also saw Snow White and the Huntsman--very dark and who would have known Kirsten Stewart is Bella in this movie too? On Saturday, we woke up early and went on a run in Zilker Park. It was finally sunny and we were dodging people on the trail, guess they thought the same thing. My mom is a runner! She is running a half marathon in September in Cotton Wood Heights. She signed me up too, so hopefully I can adjust to the altitude. After we ran, we went to the Farmer's Market. I think a lot of people thought it would rain, so it wasn't as busy as it usually is. We got some ripe red tomatoes, kale, rosemary cheese curds, peach salsa, cantaloupe mint lemonade, and some other goodies. We also went shopping downtown, and got the boys some little trinkets and "weird" things from Austin-- "Keep Austin Weird". Our soccer game was canceled, so we ended up going to a movie. After church on Sunday, we went to Mt. Bonell, the highest point in Austin. We then drove around to see the pretty houses in the valley. I love that area, if I could live anywhere in Austin it would be by Lake Austin. Monday, Mom and I went and got pedicures.I missed my mom, it was such a fun girls weekend!

Love,

Cameryn

July 4th 2012

This past week I went to visit Chris in Galveston. I knew I would have a lot of alone time so I brought my sewing kit, sushi maker, and new book. Ya, didn't get to any of those. Galveston was even more crowded this weekend because one it was fourth of July and two because of Pleasure Pier. We passed up Pleasure Pier and decided to play in the water and go swimming. Lewis and Jesse came down from Houston and brought some tasty marinated steaks. Chris and I did shish kabobs and I made of course my favorite guacamole. Earlier that morning we ate at one of our favorite breakfast places. It is a hole in the wall and we all got the same famous item on the menu the, "Sorpresa Burrito" Chris chimes in when we order "Surprise!" the old mexican lady laughs. It is made of deliciousness including egg, a huge tortilla, beans, bacon, cheese, potato. Oh so good! We indulged in tasty food all day while swimming under the Galveston sun. That night we went to the beach and watched fireworks while looking over the ocean. It was a memory to remember. Chris bought many fireworks so we went back to the apartment and made our own firework show. A couple of our neighbors wanted to watch and join in. We couldn't surpass the little girl's twinkling eyes as Jesse and I held our sparklers and were waving them in the air. We let off rockets, and blasters, and exploders...I have no idea what the fireworks are called I'm exactly opposite of a pyro. 

Oh just so adorable :)

Old looking monkey

Cheetahs! I wish they could run around...Maybe they should have a track to run around and people can run with them do get us motivated...haha

Good ol' Texas Lonestar Flag

arrgh we are pirates

Pleasure Pier Galveston

On the weekend we went to Houston to hang out with Jesse and Lewis. We saw there cute apartment and Jesse's garden which inspires me to do one...if only I had room...and I think our plants would get burnt because our apartment faces the sun basically all day. We went to the Houston Zoo and saw the red panda (looks like a fox). My favorite were the monkeys! There were these monkeys that looked like grandpa's. Lewis poked one with a stick and the monkey gave Lewis an evil eye. It was pretty scary I don't want my grandpa to ever give me an evil eye like that. We then went to Maggiano's an italian restaurant. I didn't know it was a nice restaurant so we were the only group that was not dressed up. It was a fun weekend in Galveston! I just hope Chris has more groceries next time... :) 

My Week Off (sorta)

Washing the sheets of the "Man Smell", Chris leaves to Galveston tomorrow. I have made arrangements with girls through out the weeks he will be gone. Bachelorette tomorrow with Elyse and caramel popcorn? Check. He is missing out and he knows he wants to be here watching it:). This week was Chris's summer break. We wanted to do something fun this week. Like a trip, but then we remembered that we are poor. So instead we had little day trips throughout the week. I wanted to tell my boss this week about me going to Galveston and doing some possible work from home. Turns out he is on vacation...thanks for telling us Dan! Being an intern sucks sometimes: you are belittled, don't have much responsibility, get the busy work, basically it means you are the scum between my toes. I have to tell myself this is temporary but I can't help my mind wandering and thinking is this what I am going to do for the rest of my life! When you get to the point of the day where you start talking to your computer and having conversations, I think that means you better analyze your life because you don't want to turn out like one of those pan handlers. 

We are watching Revenge. Who ever does there advertising in the commercials on Hulu are GENIUSES! Chris and I have literally memorized each one--- Freedommmm, freedommmm, FREEDOM! And Weee Weee Wee (Pig from Geico), he's just playing possum (Geico). Honestly if you want to get into thousands of people's heads just make a commercial on Hulu. We realized this when we heard a song on the radio...where have I heard this before!?

108 degrees was the high of this week. It is death! We met up with our friends Jim and Terra Tuesday night. They wanted to get together for one last hurrah before Chris leaves to Galveston. We went to Hopdoddy Burger. I am not usually the one talking up burgers but this place is worth the wait. We lined up at 7:00 and didn't get to the front to take our order until 7:45. The line was out the door and around the corner. They even offered little cups of water while we waited in line sweating while customers were all agitated and accused Jim and Terra of cutting in line. My preconception of Texas was the heat. Now all I think about is the heat and how we can avoid it. Needless to say our AC bill has gone way up and I have to turn the fan on while I sleep because otherwise I would be fried chicken. 

Disc golf is an interesting game. Basically your throw it like a frisbee with more spin. Throw it in the opposite direction of where you want it to go and then it will hit the marker. I tried this several times and failed several times. Chris tried to show me some techniques, I think anything with the name golf in it already has the outcome of 'Mm better luck next time Cameryn.' 

Wednesday we went to a free summer event that they have every other week in Austin. Hundreds of people come out to see Blues on the Greens. This week Ben Kweller, one of Chris's favorite artist's, came so we made our way downtown to Zilker Park. The brisk 95 degrees was much more cool than the 108 we had had the previous day. It is the best place to people watch. I saw many interesting people and smelt very interesting things... There are also a lot of dogs, which makes me so excited I want to touch every single one. On the other hand Chris just tries to avoid them and 'pretend' not to smile. I say to him, how about that one, what about that one, that one is a good size, won't it be so much fun to have a dog in residency! It can be like my little companion when you are gone...he is going to give in and love that dog more than anything I just know it!

The Mead's invited us over for dinner Friday. They have two little kids Corinne and Cason. It made me realize... I can wait to have kids i'm not in a rush.. This realization was when I saw Chris Meads face saying night night time to Cason and then throwing the ball, and throwing it again, he sure looked wiped out. We had some good ol' cornucopia salad and BBQ chicken from a grill! Ah, I miss grilling in the summer. It's too hot in Texas, anything cold and refreshing I try to huddle around. Besides that Chilly does not sounds appetizing at the least bit.

Enchanted Rock, some Indians settled here and believed that this place was holy and held sacred rituals. Basically it is a big rock. Wow a big rock! Let's climb it! So we did, straight up the rock we tried to find the "caves" or "crevices in the rock" and then ran down the big rock. Next stop was Fredericksburg a small antique town in the middle of no where. It reminded me of Midway or Heber I guess. Cowboy shops lined the small strip of stores. Our favorite store Rustlin' Robs was by far our favorite. Chris was like a little kid in a candy store. There were numerous choices of honey butters, salsas, sauces, peanut butters, BBQ, and hot sauces to try. We paired this with the infinite amount of wheat thins and pretzels and you got yourself a lunch. 

Our soccer team has not been doing well these last couple of weeks. I think the heat may be getting to our heads. Playing a 80 minute soccer game with no subs does get to you a little. We have three huge water containers and go through all of them. We ended up losing 2-1 while one of our own players scored on us. The team was not too happy. We came home and cleaned our apartment to the bone or scrub the hell out of the tub like Chris says. I then attempted to give Chris a haircut. He said it doesn't matter for guys what it the haircut looks like, just as long as it looks somewhat proportionate. That is definitely coming from a man, I don't think I would let anyone cut my hair who doesn't have much experience. I beat my time by 50%! 45 minutes to cut it! Now the outcome.. hm well we will give it some time to grow out. 

Fast Sunday was a treat. I was able to hear Chris bare his testimony, Rachel bore hers, and I was able to bare my testimony as well. I feel so connected to this ward, it is definitely hard to move from a ward where you know everyone and they love you so much to a ward where you don't know anyone hardly at all. But as I was listening to Chris bare his testimony, there truly are some of the greatest people we have met in this ward. I love how diverse it is but intimate. It is a big ward and although you feel lost at some times you remember that there are individuals who are looking out after you. 

I'm going to miss my hubby this week! I will definitely be able to relate to him how it felt in the beginning of the year with him living by himself. Hopefully the time will go by fast.