Baby Love

Oh is he not the kissiest sweetest looking baby in EVER? This picture stole my heart. I am so soooo sooooo in love with baby Lincoln. Matt and Julie are amazing. Shauna and I are going to be the best aunts.

i held an alligator

We met these animals and peeps at the last conference Preston played. The conferences are a ton of acts/ cool stuff colleges can bring to campus. Everything from animals, spoken word poets, Mr. Belding or Uncle Joey, comedians, bands and Preston. The conferences are so much fun.

Reno 911 guys. So nice. So funny.

My dream come true.

I really have always wanted to hold an alligator.

I felt like one million dollars.

This is Preston's monkey girlfriend, Mindy. She is at a lot of the conferences Preston goes to. The last time he saw her she sat on his shoulder and tongue kissed him. for real. He has video of it and its one of my favorite things. This time she just stole his hat. I think I want a monkey pet.

This is Halloween Preston. We spent it in Indiana with Seth and Maddy. We watched scary movies and went to a haunted house except I chickened out the last minute and didn't go in.

oh hey

lets be honest. im not a great blogger.

We've been on the road since August. we got to go home once for 6 days. now we're back out. yesterday we were in Indiana today we're in Michigan. We've been in at least 25 different states over the last few months.

we probably drive about 3 hours a day. and every week and a half we have a big 10 or so hour drive. i get carsick in the passenger seat and Preston speeds without cruise control and gets tickets. so i drive 95% of the time.

His shows have been awesome. He played a conference last week to book shows for the spring and was the number one booked act of the whole thing. He has never played a conference where he hasn't had the most bookings. He plays about 60-70 shows a semester. That's a ton. He works real hard and i'm real proud of him.

My jobs on this tour: I drive, I read a lot of books, keep us eating healthy, find cool stuff for us to do in the cities we're in, find a church to go to when we're not driving on a Sunday. and keep us up to date on awesome tv shows. basically, what would Preston do on the road without me?

TV: We think New Girl is not as funny as it should be and i'm over it. Up All Night is sooooo much funnier than we thought it'd be. like so great and funny. It's the current fav. We tried to watch An American Horror Story. Its real cool and awesome story line and cast, but i'm such a wuss. I wish I could do scary creepy shows and movies, but after the first episode I was so scared and creeped I could hardly sleep, then woke up a hundred times that night just thinking of the creepiness. So I think i'm checked out of that one.

We are reeeeal excited for Thanksgiving. We get to go to california and meet Julie and Matt's new baby Gillrie. I am so excited to have a nephew.

Scranton

In the past couple weeks we've been through a dozen states. Preston's shows have been going so great. I get to see him perform every night and every night I still find myself so impressed and in such awe of him. He is so so good at what he does.

We have been in Pennsylvania the past week or so. We were driving down the freeway going a good 70mph, listening to the new Lil' Wayne record. I looked in front of us and saw a good sized chunk of pipe from the overpass fall down. I watched it, watched it and watched it until crashed down directly on our windshield.

For real.

It was like incredible timing.

Teeny glass chunks and glass dust covered our laps. We were so shocked. It hit super hard. And really, it hit in the perfect spot. Any higher and i'm sure it would have gone through the window and hit Preston right in the money making face. We were real thankful for the timing of the whole thing. We went to a car wash to vacuum up all the glass inside the car, called our awesome insurance agent and got it all taken care of pretty quickly.

But really how weird is that?

A piece of the overpass fell down and hit us?

Real crazy, Scranton.

We are here in PA for a few more shows, then New York, then Missouri and on from there. We are doing great, having fun and even though i packed enough clothes for 3 months I think i've worn the same 3 outfits the entire time.

i love tracy jordan

This fall i'm traveling with Preston. We spent the last 2 days driving through 6 states, eating lots of candy and re-watching season 1 of 30 rock which is sooo funny. so so. Preston had his first show of the tour today in Indiana. Such a great time. Southern Indiana pretty much looks like Idaho except instead of potato fields its corn and instead of bugs that don't glow, its fireflies. Real pretty. From here, we go to Iowa, Missouri, Pennsylvania and almost every state in between. I'm excited to see places i've never seen and get to spend time with Preston. And for season 2 of 30 rock.

Havasupai round 2

This year's Havasupai trip was a dream.

We took a helicopter into the canyon

Best decision I've ever made.

For real.

If you are on a 10 mile (each way) backpacking trip and

there is an option to take a 3 minute helicopter ride instead,

always opt for it.

You won't regret it.

But take a good picture of your humongous backpack

so you still look as hard core as last year.

This is our Campsite. We slept in trees under the stars.

It rained at least once everyday we were there.

So we we're soooo loving our ponchos

and hammock covers made by Preston

He is a problem solving genius.

We had a blast.

Hiking, eating, cave exploring, swimming,

cliff jumping, the works

And, yes, we accidentally wore matching outfits.

We filled our water bottles from waterfalls

you could straight drink from

Teal water like nowhere i've ever seen before.

Havasupai is such a beautiful place.

I love love it all.

Havasupai, I love you and now that I don't actually have to hike to get to you, I think i'll see you again next year, and the year after that and the year after that.

A rescue story

Preston and I were swinging in our hammock

when we saw a bright yellow smiley face scamper across the lawn.

It was this guy.

Really, owner of turtle? a smiley face?

embarrassing.

After we decided that it wasn't any of our neighbors' pet

Preston scooped him up in a cooler and we took him to the pond.

He ran to the water and dove in.

He was like the happiest turtle i've ever seen

and not just because of his yellow back tat.

We felt like one million dollars the rest of the day.

4th and the 5th

We spent the 4th at the Rexburg parade which is always a dream.

Candy, The fire truck hose full blast in the streets, ladies walking on horses backs, Chevron gas station workers doing choreographed dances to Grease Lightning...We got the good stuff this year.

We headed to IF for fireworks with our friends the Brady's.

I love love love the 4th of July. First cause the fireworks (and Idaho Falls has one of the best shows in ever), and second cause when it turns midnight it's my birthday, which I super love.

So now it's my birthday! 27. Whoa. We woke up and rode bikes all around our little town, packed our backpacks and now we're headed off to this little dream land. For real. I love me some Havasupai

I'm glad he was born

Happy Birthday, Preston

You're makin' 30 look real good.

schools out for summer. except that it snowed this morning. which makes me not feel so summery.

My first year of teaching.

My first class.

And aren't they dolls in their grad hats? And do you spy the tuxedo t-shirt? My favorite.

Today was the last day of school.

We did Kindergarten Graduation yesterday

so we could straight party today.

I'm talking hula-hoops, parachute, popsicles,

Justin Bieber freeze dance contest...the works.

The Pre-school teacher, me and the other kindergarten teachers got together and choreographed a dance to Rebecca Black's "Friday" to do for our kids. Maybe your thinking- what teachers take the time to make up a dance to perform just for their students? Um...Awesome ones who hang out way too much and have too much sugar and caffeine all the time. The kid's reaction was so funny. Real confused. like why is my teacher dancing for me? and how does she know this song?

We ended the dance by silly stringing them all. It was a blast.

I will so miss my kindergarteners.

I'm not teaching next year because this guy has 70+ shows booked just Fall semester and about that many for the rest of next year. This year has been crazy with Preston gone so much and me spending all my time teaching or lesson planning and we feel like we deserve some time to just be together more than a lot. So we're going to tour the country together next year.

And then i'll teach again forever after that. Because I really love it like an unreal amount. It is so fulfilling and rewarding. The chance to get to connect with so many children and play a role in their lives is beautiful. This year has been the best year of my life. hands down.

MOM

We painted portraits of our mom's for Mother's Day.

They turned out incredible. These kids are 5 and 6.

I also interviewed each kid about their mom.

Turns out their mom's range from ages 9 to 78

The absolute majority of their favorite things to do include:

1. laundry, 2. cook and clean,

3. vaccuum, 4. clean my room and do homework.

Meet some of the Kindergarten Moms:

Christian lives with his grandma, Cindy.

She is 18 years old, loves adult food,

cooking and cleaning and she is the very best duster.

Kason's mom looks like she's on the cast of Jersey shore.

He's pretty sure she's 16 years old,

but he hasn't measured her yet.

Parker's mom will turn 78 on May 19th! exciting! Mostly because she has a 6 year old, a 3 year old and a 9 month old baby. She is looking great for 78. She also loves the color orange because they used to live in Texas and Parker told me everything is orange in Texas.

Samantha's mom, Patty, is a 13 year old shop-a-holic

who loves ice cream and anything purple.

She likes to be called Patty Mama.

(I said, 'Sammy is that really what you call your mom?'

she said 'no, but I want to.')

Here is MY pretty mom.

Wedding announcement 1981

Church last Sunday 2011

She is the best lady in ever. She is constantly learning. Ever since I can remember she has been taking random classes at the college. she took a wildflower class when we were kids and would take us on hikes and teach us the names of all the flowers. She took a belly dancing class and we looooved to play dress up in her tinkling, jingly bra costume. She has been taking photography classes for the past few years and is an amazing photographer. She wakes up early most mornings to watch photo shop tutorials and will stay up all night editing pictures. She doesn't do it for money, even though she could make bank. She does it out of simple joy and love of learning. She is inspiring to me. I love my mom so so much. more than I can ever say. I am so thankful for the way she has lived her life. She is a constant example of love and charity.

And she's really funny without trying.