Pumpkin Farm!

Last weekend after the baby shower My Mom, my sister Brianna, and I met my brother Matthew, his wife Carrie, and our nephew Adden at the pumpkin farm. They have the place set up really cute with a hay maze, a hay pit, animals, fresh fruit and vegetables, and pumpkins galore.

Here's Adden and I checking out the pumpkins

Siblings. Matthew, Brianna and I.

Aunt Brianna with Adden.

Grandma with Adden...he was kinda sick of pictures by this time

So we took him through the hay maze which was incredibly narrow and made all of the adults feel claustrophobic and then to jump into the hay pit which he LOVED!

We went home with fresh corn and apples making this an evening full of all things lovely and fallish. :)

Baby Shower for Tiana...well really for AVA

Last weekend my sister Brianna, our friend Jana and I threw a baby shower for my cousin Tiana who is set to have a little girl (Ava) in early December. On Saturday morning after spending most of the evenings that week prepping we drove down to SM to set up for the shower. Aunt Lisa helped with the food thankfully so we set up the cupcakes (I spent the afternoon/evening the day before making approx 130 cupcakes), decorate, and arrange seating. By the time the shower was ready to start everything was beautiful.

Brianna and Jana mad this adorable dipper cake to go in the middle of the table.

Here's a sampling of the cupcakes I made. On top was chocolate cupcakes with mint frosting and Andi's mints on top. The middle tray was yellow cupcakes with chocolate frosting and kit-kat or peanut butter cup on top. On the bottom was my fav. lemon cupcakes with raspberry cream cheese frosting and a raspberry on top.

Here's the banner we made from scrapbook paper with "baby girl" on it.

The flowers Jana arranged which we put next to the punch were beautiful.

Tiana's many, many presents and in the background another banner we made to decorate.

As you can see Jana was the photographer so I don't have many photos of people but here's one my mom snapped of Jana and I at the start of the shower. All and all things went beautifully and fun was had by all.

Cheese Party!

I don't know if I've mentioned it lately but I really have an awesome family. Here is just one example of our awesomeness. On conference weekend we all got together at Aunt Lisa and uncle Joe's house to watch conference and spend time together. This year Aunt Lisa decided it would be fun if we had a cheese party between sessions of conference. She called everyone up and told them to bring their favorite cheese and any other sides that would be appropriate. My cousin Michael and Grandpa really enjoyed the stinky cheese.

Here's everyone waiting for the party to begin.

Brianna and I about to enjoy our first bites.

Here's my Mom reading a fact about cheese before passing around her favorite cheese.

Grandpa got in on that action too, reading a fact about cheese before he and grandma passed around their cheese provolone, which Grandma of course pronounced provo-lone-eee.

After the party another session of conference started and Grandma and Grandpa fell into a cheese coma...or maybe it was just a quick nap. :)

Joe Nichols Concert!

Being country loving folks, my family and I went to a Joe Nichols concert. Here's my Mom, my Dad, Callie and I with our tickets ready to go in.

All the girls ready for the concert!

We were really excited that our tickets were sparkly!!

We arrived at the concert at 8:00 pm....it was scheduled to start at 8:30. The first opening act started right on time followed shortly thereafter by opening act number 2. Then they the put the radio on the speakers and we waited, and waited, and waited....for 50 minutes before Joe finally came on stage. Needless to say the crowd got a bit restless. But when he finally came out the concert was amazing. We were really close to the stage. The picture below is taken without a zoom. We were close enough to catch Joe's eye a couple of times. It was great and he sang all our favs and we arrived home happy to spite our sore feet. Love Joe Nichols. :)

Dreams really do come true!

This past week my family and I had the opportunity to go swimming in the Hearst castle pool! Here's me and my Sister Brianna on the bus ride up to the castle we were so excited.

When we arrived at the castle we used the "ladies dressing rooms" to put on our suits....so cool!

Here we are ready to jump in.

It was sooooooooo amazing. The water as you can see was clear and beautiful, the sun was shinning and the weather was warm. The perfect day for a swim in the most amazing pool ever!

Here's Brianna and I enjoying the water.

It was so cool to finally be able to just Jump in, I've dreamed of it for so long, and guess what it is as cool as you think it is!

Brianna and I swam under each of the 4 fountains streaming into the pool.

The pool is 9 feet deep in most places so we took a few minutes to rest up at the pool side.

I was the last one in the pool guess all those days in the ocean as a kid really paid off, endurance is everything.

At the end of the evening we were sad to leave but so happy to have had the experience of swimming in the most amazing pool on earth!

I think I found my calling in life!

I recently started my 2nd and final Field work experience (aka an internship I am required to do for school). My first field work placement I did over the summer and it was at a nursing home where I had the opportunity to provide therapy for elderly individuals most of whom had recently had surgery (hip, knee, heart, etc.) It was fast paced and at times I was stressed to the max trying to get everything done. But I enjoyed it for the most part and met some wonderful people who taught me a lot and who I was able to help. I also learned a lot from my field work supervisor who pushed me, was open and honest, and was an awesome and knowledgeable therapist. After a month long vacation I started working again, this time in pediatrics. For the past 3 weeks I've had the opportunity to work in a medical therapy unit with children. So far I have seen many diagnoses but primarily Cerebral Palsy. In spite of the fact that each case is complicated and unique and that children seem to have so many more aspects to look at than adults, I LOVE IT!!! I love working with the kids and figuring out how find things that are fun to do to help them develop the skill necessary to be independent and functional. I LOVE that the kids respond to me so well, that they smile and laugh and seem to love me instantly. The kids that I work with have some pretty severe disabilities but each one is so special it amazes me....their patience and dedication to a task blows me away. I'm learning so much but the biggest thing Ive learned so far is that this is what I want to do, it's my gift from my Heavenly Father that I have a special connection with these kids. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of a loving Heavenly Father and that he has a plan for me. I have felt his influence with me each step of the way as I've moved closer and closer to my educational and professional goal of becoming an occupational therapist. I know I'm going to keep needing it as I move closer and closer to becoming an full fledged OT! I'm living the dream.

Griffith Family Reuinion 2010

On the last weekend of July my Dad's sisters flew in for a visit and to attend my cousins wedding. The weekend they got here we got together for garage saling/girls day on Saturday. Lots of fun, good deals and laughter. On Sunday we all went to church with Grandma and Grandpa! It was cool to see my grandparents with all their kids and many of the grandchildren at church. After church we all went to Grandma and Grandpa's house for dinner and played a game where we had to share memories from growing up, it was cool to share past memories many of which included other family members. Here I am with all the girl cousins who were there. Me, Tiana, Brianna, Callie and Christina (somehow we ended up in age order)

Here's all the girls with our new cousin Mette who married my cousin Brent the following weekend.

Sisters pic we always take one of my dad's 2 sisters and Brianna and I.

I loved spending time with my poopsie (my cousin Ross, who I call poopsie)

My Dad's immediate family was all together: Grandpa, Aunt Laurie, Aunt Debbie, Uncle Joe, My Dad, and Grandma

We took pics of all the graduates in our family. Here I am with Aunt Debbie the only other family member with a masters.

All the grandchildren (minus Matthew and Carrie) who have their bachelor's!

Fun hanging out with my cousin Christina.

On Monday evening the Men had a "Man Day" for my cousin Brent who was getting married the next Saturday. While they were out shooting guys and being manly, we girls had a baby shower for my cousin Tiana who is having a little girl (the first girl great grandchild) in December. Here I am with my Grandma at the shower.

Tiana with the outfit Brianna and I gave her for her little girl.

We had yummy Shirley temples and strawberry cheesecake for dessert.

Aunt Lisa and Brianna on the front lawn at the baby shower. Show lovely enjoying the evening together.

The week went by fast and on Thursday Night we all got together with Mette's family in Camarillo and had a big FHE and got to know each other. Here's my Dad, My cousin Michael, My Grandpa, and My brother Matthew at the FHE.

Me, my nephew Adden, and my sister Callie at the FHE.

After dinner and games out on the lawn we all headed inside to watch a movie my cousin Josh made for the couple. It was adorable and hilarious! Here's My sister Brianna, My grandpa, My grandma, and I after watching the video.

After the video we had ice cream sandwiches made with homemade cookies ( I made 5 dozen
chocolate chip cookies the week before, and aunt Laurie made another 5 dozen and aunt Lisa still had to buy some more there were so many people)!Here's Aunt Lisa, Aunt Debbie and my Dad after making ice cream sandwiches for everyone.

That night we drove down to LA and stayed in a hotel across from the temple so we could be there in time for the sealing in the morning. It was a beautiful sealing. Here's my Dad and his siblings outside the Temple waiting for the bride and groom there were tons of weddings that day.

My family outside the Temple after the sealing.

The girls after the sealing. Me, my Mom, my sister Callie, My sister Brianna, and my sister-in-law Carrie.

That afternoon we drove back to Camarillo and checked into our hotel and got ready for the reception that night. Here I am with my sister Brianna and aunt Laurie at the reception.

Here I am with my grandpa at the reception. Which was lots of fun, and since we weren't in charge we got to leave and go swimming that night at our hotel pool. :)

The next day we got up and had breakfast, did some water aerobics, and got ready for the day. On our way to Santa Barbara we stopped at in-and-our. Here I am with my Mom and my cousin Ross.

That afternoon we went to the Santa Barbara zoo. Me, Callie, Christina, aunt Debbie, Uncle Gary, grandma, grandpa, aunt Laurie, Ross.

While we were at the zoo we took a ride on the train just our party took up a whole car.

Here's my cousin Ross looking like a prairie dog. :) you can see one behind him if you look close

Me, my sister Brianna, and my cousin Christina pretending to be monkeys...well I'm not really sure what Christina was up to.

Here I am with my Dad at the zoo.

Here I am with my Mom at the zoo! It was such a beautiful view!

Brianna and Callie pretending to be flamingos!

Adden making aunt Callie kiss his giraffe toys my Mom bought him at the zoo gift shop. After the zoo we all went out to dinner and said our goodbyes the Californians drove home that night and the out-of-towners stayed at a hotel and flew home that night. It was a great reunion, we have so much fun together it's exhausting. :)