Endless Summer rides a hog to Mt. Rushmore

When making our list of things to do this summer, Dustin said we had to take a Harley trip up to Mt. Rushmore. I thought, sure why not... never done that before.... little did I know that it was going to be the best time ever! Epic, some might say... or at least Dustin.View of Dustin's back... a view I got to know well.
Someday...
On our last leg back to Denver... it was freezing.
At the beginning of the ride.

So many buffalo...
View from the "b" word...
We made it!!!
Check!
Me and the boys... and Dustin and Spence

View from one of the tunnels.
Uh-oh
Great faces. Great places.
Woo hoo!
It was just a warning from the Deputy, but made the trip complete. No accidents, no rain, no tickets... woo hoo! Another successful trip from the people of the Endless Summer!

Endless Summer Goes to Lake Powell!!

After months of talking about going to Lake Powell, we finally did it! It was awesome. We had 12 awesome people come with us and used my family's houseboat (thanks!). It was perfect weather and we had a great time! Here are some pictures of the fun that we had...

Dustin and I went hiking up a canyon one day and found a huge log. Most people would have walked right passed it, but Dustin is not most people. The next day we got the boat and went and hauled it over to the houseboat. I have never towed a log behind a boat before.
We played on that thing for hours. That was one of the first adventures that Dustin created.

Spence brought his creativity and camera on board. We got some cool pictures because of it.
Dustin did not stop with the log. One day while driving the ski boat, we found a drill and stakes. Dustin immediately knew what we were going to do with them. We moved the houseboat to where he could make the perfect zipline. It was super fun and made a relay that we all had even better.
This is Dustin sliding down the zipline.

On our way to Defiance House, we found some other ruins. Of course I had to play inside one of them.
This is at Defiance House.
Here are Traci and I. We had a great time together. My friends realized that there is a Thornton so much cooler than me.
There is no place like Lake Powell. It is a trip like no other. So much work and so much fun!

July is out of the way, but more importantly, so is the Anniversary Sale...

Yep, I survived the Anniversary Sale without buying any shoes. It was tough, I will be honest. There were some great shoes that were pretty inexpensive. I am becoming a tough cookie though. I only bought one thing for myself... jeans... my new addiction. I have also gotten addicted to buying ties and dress shirts... that is fun stuff. A whole new world of shopping for me. I love it.
Anyhow, only five more months of hearing me talk about shoes. I promise I have other things going on in my life. Maybe someday I will post about him.... oops, I mean them. :)

New Jimmy Choos for Jen... Jan. 1st 2009

Well, all I needed was a challenge... if you have not read the comments from my last posting, my dad said that he would bet Jimmy Choos that I would not buy a pair of shoes before the end of the year. If anyone is unfamiliar with Jimmy's, you need to google them. They are amazing... although the one pair that I did buy must have been made by the devil because they hurt so bad... but, they sure are pretty. Now I have all the incentive I need to make it another 5 months and 17 days. Dad, you better start saving your change because I will be taking a big chunk at the end of the year.

SIX MONTHS DOWN!!

YES! I MADE IT HALF THE YEAR WITHOUT ONE SINGLE SHOE PURCHASE... IT DOESN'T EVEN PHASE ME ANYMORE... EXCEPT THOSE TORY BURCHES THAT I HAVE TO WALK BY EVERYDAY... IT IS A GOOD THING I AM TOO SHORT TO WEAR FLATS.

My self control reminds of being in college. I was friends with the coolest girl for awhile when I was a freshman and sophmore and she practiced lent, so I being the follower that I am, also started. Over the years, I have given up shopping, candy, fast food, carbs (stupid decision), and have added things into my life like doing 500 sit ups a day and reading the scriptures... all good things. One year, I decided to give up chocolate. I must say that I am better at practicing lent than most catholics, mostly because I am so dang stubborn and already abstain from so much in life. I was roommates with Nicole at the time, and she rarely cooked or baked anything (even though she is more domestic than I will ever be). For someone's birthday, she made chocolate cake... a cake that she still won't let me try, but I hear is delicious... but, me being the stubborn, non-catholic, lent follower, would not try the cake because it was chocolate. She was so mad at me. I still feel bad about it.

Moral of the story is...

Even though I have probably averaged buying 2 to 3 pairs of shoes a month for the last 5 or 6 years of my life, there will be no receipts from shoes being purchased in 2008!

MONZA DAY!!!

Well, I am pretty sure this would have made the headlines if the media caught wind of it, but we kept it on the down low. We had a party on Friday night that will be talked about for years to come. It all started in April when Dustin bought a new waterski... a Monza. We had already been waterskiing for about a month, but it was snowing and it did not look like we were going to be able to ski. When we got to the lake, the sky turned clear and we were able to get out on the water! It was amazing. It was not the only amazing thing that happenned that day. Dustin thought it would be awesome to line the perimeter of the lake with tiki torches. Everyone laughed at us for thinking it could actually be done, but we made it happen. We planned it as close to a full moon as possible, which ended up being the first day of summer... very appropriate since this is has been dubbed as the "endless summer". Everyone that came had to bring 4 tiki torches and sure enough, with the help of the moon and glow sticks attached to our life vests, we were able to ski/tube/wakeboard until 4 in the morning... and were back on the water by 7. It was amazing... these picture don't even come close to showing how awesome it was, but you can imagine.

Cami turned 28!

It was my roommate, Cami's 28th birthday on Friday! We celebrated tonight with everyone. It was a great party. Cami is a super roommate. Everyone loves her!

This is Rachel and I. She is an awesome frined.
Me and Dustin kickin' it on the porch.
Cami is a huge fan of New York. Her brother lives out there, so she goes there often and the last time she went, she brought us back these t-shirts. We decided that it would be appropriate for us to wear the shirts for her birthday.
We all love NY, just not as much as Cami does!
Woo-hoo for another successful birthday party! Good cake, cool birthday girl, fun guests... good times!