Baby Sister has a Birthday!

Ok, so she's not a baby. She was turning 22. Oh, and this was almost 3 months ago. That's how behind I am on blogging. But her party is definitely worth mentioning because it involved go karts, gorilla masks and giant ice cream cones. And Lord Voldemort. Really, my friends, does it get any better than that?

Here are the invites. Well, the back. I forgot to take a picture of the front. Fail.

We had a campout. Thus the smores stuff. I felt that needed further clarification.

 That's her. She fine. We share the same genes. And that's my finger. Not the bad one though.

Just us cousins bein' cute.

Next we had a treasure hunt. Just a lil' old FREAKING AMAZING-RACE style treasure hunt made by yours truly. I even made up the poems. Me and Google Poems. Ok, so that's not a real thing; but it did sound like something Google would have. Did I just successfully use a semicolon?

The hunters had to answer a bunch of riddles and complete challenges to move on to the next clue. This one was a personal favorite:

The hunters were completely at my mercy as they headed to Boondocks to find their tickets under the name Lord Voldemort. They got some strange looks asking for them. That was the idea. 

What is a Kong cone, you ask? Here, let me show you: 

BAM!!

Oh yeah. This is real life.

The aforementioned photo op required the following prop (there I go again with the rhyming; you can't stop it):

Seriously, you can't put a price on this sort of entertainment.
We finished off the evening with a campfire. Naturally. Only I had a really hard time finding a fire pit. Naturally. So...

We used an old wheelbarrow.

Naturally.

I am related to the greatest people in the world.

Lately...

This is what we've been up to lately since the Great Blog Neglect of Summer 2011 began. It was a really fun summer!

Yes, I am still stuck in the middle of the soul-sucking abyss of woe and endless misery that is job-hunting. But at least I'm upbeat about it, right? :) I may have even applied for a job as a dock worker. I live in Utah. Where do we even have docks?? They didn't hire me due to my inability to lift a box as heavy as me and twice as tall over my head while sipping a bathtub size Coke from the gas station. Seriously, have you seen the size of the drinks those guys have?? I could comfortably wade in one of them.

I'm up for a job now that I really really want. It's perfect for me and I'm perfect for it. I don't want to say what it is in case I jinx it. Pray for me, friends. Ok?

That cute little smores package was actually a birthday party invitation for my dear sister's birthday. We had a campout and a giant, Amazing Race style treasure hunt! Did I also mention that we had a campfire in an old wheelbarrow? Yeah. It was super legit. And way better than a plain-old, regular campfire.

To answer your question: No, we were not practicing for Halloween. Did you see how I did that? I answered your question before you even had a chance to ask it! How efficient. Seriously, who wouldn't want to hire me? We dressed as zombies for the 4th Annual Salt Lake City Zombie Walk. No, I didn't make that up. It's a real thing. Hundreds of people attended this year. It was pretty nuts. Here we are last year. Sorry if that last zombie picture gives you nightmares.

Next we took a cousins trip to California. Cue the Beach Boys music. We spent a day lounging on the beach. Husbandman was ashamed by the pitiful size of our fire so the boys took some roasting sticks and stole fire from our neighbors after they left theirs. They were so brave.

Men are here! Steal fire! Cook meat!

Then we went to Hollywood. None of us had ever been. I had Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus stuck in my head the whole time.

Finally, we went to DISNEYLAND! We saw my BFF, Mickey! We went on the new Little Mermaid ride (sooo cute!) and we took an afternoon nap during the Aladdin show. Just to be clear, that show is not bad. We were just freaking tired. Seriously, how can you not be happy when you're in Disneyland? Well, actually, my feet were not happy by the time we left. Three 16-hour days of Disney mania will do that to an old woman. It took them weeks to forgive me.

Speaking of the Little Mermaid, our last summer hurrah consisted of a trip down to St. George to see The Little Mermaid at Tuacahn. It was amazing! Husbandman was even singing along for some of it. I'll make a Broadway believer out of him yet.

The last thing I should mention is that I'm now addicted to Project Runway. There have been marathons on the Style network. It is the perfect show for the unemployed. Do any of you watch it? It's fascinating to me how 5 hours a day of watching this show makes me actually believe that I could rip the fabric off of my couch and whip up a fabulous suede jacket in no time. Or perhaps a chic dress with a matching bag. And really, I can barely operate a sewing machine.

I need a job.

Kites

My cousin took these at my birthday party. I love them. I forgot how fun it is to fly stinkin' kites!

My Birthday Weekend

So this past weekend I had a birfday. Yep. It's true. I'm a year older now. I won't tell you which birthday it was because I'm a little sensitive on that subject. Let's just say that the man upstairs and I have a deal that this is the oldest I will ever get.

Friday: My day of birth arrived. Mom took us to breakfast at my all-time favorite breakfast diner and we converted husbandman into an Eggs Benedict lovist. Thanks, Mom!

Then I went on a drive with puppy and littlest brother to the mountains to scout for a photography location. The lovely green turned to white snow after about 7 miles and we pouted and then drove home.

Husbandman took me to Culver's to get take-out for dinner and he sang while I blew out my candles on my butter burger. :) Bandit just barked at the fire.

Saturday: I ran through an obstacle course in the mud and ended up with a sprained ankle. Boo. Although at the time it was too muddy for the nice medical people to tell that it was sprained.

Then my lovely sister and cousins threw me a Birthuation (birthday+graduation) party in the park. We played croquet and flew kites which was a little tame for us, but we had a really great time.

 Apparently there was a nefarious silly string plot being formed against me...

My sister and her roommate made these adorable cupcakes. Lil sis even knew my favorite flavor. :)

I even had a couple of mushy moments cause my cousins are just so awesome. They really are. They complete me. There I go again.

Sunday: My mother-in-law threw me a lovely backyard barbecue with incredible bruschetta. It was so so good. I ate like 17. The party may or may not have ended in a giant water gun fight. :)

Thank you everyone for a fantastic birthday weekend!

A Mexican fiesta aka the day we discovered the kazoos

My cousins rock. Have I ever told you this? We have a club and we plan random adventures. This past weekend, we had a Mexican Fiesta to celebrate a birthday. And just because we felt like it, mostly. We were also kinda celebrating the end of the world. The Rapture was supposed to occur during the party. We don't really believe in that stuff, but we figured if it did somehow happen, this would be a pretty good way to go.

The costumes were truly the stuff of dreams.

Homemade Cafe Rio pork... Mmmm...

Feliz Cumpleanos Senorita Kate!

We even had a pinata handmade in Mexico. By Vira. Oooh!

It was full of awesome candy and these little beauties... Our world will never be the same. 

We've pretty much perfected the art of Kazooing and turned it gansta:

This is a duel that took place during the party. It was violent. And weird. 

I can't wait to see what we come up with next!