Josh's Sushi Weekend Camping & Tubing in Oneida Narrows

As you can see, I'm playing catch up with updates here on the blog this week!  Life has been crazy while preparing for Josh to go and what we're all doing after.  A few weeks ago we went camping and tubing at Oneida Narrows.  This has been a (mostly) yearly tradition for our group of friends for a little while now and we wanted to make sure we got one in before Josh left for Canada.  So Josh, Valor, Kristina, and I packed up and headed for Idaho and Ortie joined us the next day.

We took to calling the weekend "Josh's Sushi Weekend" due to the fact that he was the only guy, and when the trip was over he called his mom and told her he was "all femaled out."  Can't say I blame him, I am a girl and I definitely needed a break from women after it!   But the trip was a lot of fun and we managed to get in some good food, great company, and several trips down the river on our tubes.  I also got to play with the camera a bit too-which is always fun.  I need a LOT of practice.

Going Away Party Take 2: Photo Post

The Saturday before last we threw a second going away party for Josh.  We wanted to make sure to have one that our friends in Salt Lake City could attend, and really-I wanted one last party in "Josh & Angie's Apartment" again too.  It was such a great time, and we had fun trying to take some group photos.  Here's the result of breaking out my camera at the party... We started just getting the old gang together, and then people one by one started jumping into the photos.  We even got some good groping ones to recreate some old photos from our past.  You can definitely see how much fun we were having in these photos.

And that right there is my group.  My people.  My family.  Lots of love and lots of humor.  Jon's just showing you all his affection there in the last picture.  It's all about the love around here.  See photos from the first going away party HERE.

August Literary Junkies

Man, remember all those months I had a goal to just read one book?  Suddenly I'm just flying through them and I'm back on a good reading habit-which I LOVE!  I'm so excited to be into reading again! So of course, this month I definitely have to play along for Literary Junkies with Pink Heels Pink Truck & Life with a Side of Coffee, as well as this month's co-host Girl on the Move.

1. What are you reading?  Tell us about it!

I'm currently reading Outlander by Diana Gabaldon on my iPad and The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson (but mostly Outlander as I'm hooked!) in paper book form (you know, for when the iPad is charging lol.)

2. Do you read one book at a time, or read multiple books at once? 

As you can see above, multiple... Though I tend to only focus on the one I'm most hooked on while reading.

3. What is the first book that made you fall in love with reading?

I've loved reading since as far back as I can remember.  I devoured the Goosebumps books as a child (my favorite was Say Cheese and Die) but the first book I obsessively could not put down was Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison by Lois Lensky.  I read it repeatedly in the fourth grade and obsessed over the tale of her being forced to live with a native tribe.  It took years of hunting to find the book again as an adult since I remembered the cover vividly but not the name or the author.  The other one I felt really shaped my love of reading was The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis.  I loved all Narnia books.

4. Do you prefer the physical copy of the book or an electronic version?

If you'd have asked me this question a month ago I would have sworn I'd never switch to eBooks ever.  Never never never.  I'm an avid book lover-I like the feel, the smell, and having them lining my walls/shelves. However, I've recently discovered a love of using my iPad to read books... It's easy to do in the dark, or on a trip where you can't carry a lot of books, and it's SO easy to just get the next book you want without waiting for it or going anywhere... I may still prefer the regular books for those novels I know I want in physical form, but reading the digital ones has been great too!

5. What are three books on your to read list?

I have hundreds on my to-read list... I'm going to share both the next 3 I am reading (for sure-and already have) plus the top 3 on my wishlist-just because it's fun!

The next three in my To Read queue are: Town Haunts by Cathy Spencer, Ruby by Cynthia Bond, and Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble by H.P. Mallory.

The top 3 on my wishlist are: American Gods by Neil Gaiman, Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by April Genevieve Tucholk, and Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.