Gotta be a FIRST time for everything

I have experienced many "firsts" in the past few days. Some exciting and some terrifying. Lemme show ya with some pictures.

My first time on a chairlift. So great!! My first time on an alpine slide. Even greater!
My first time hearing a prairie dog chirp. Um, interesting.My first time seeing the Badlands. But also my first time experiencing a fear of heights. I had an almost full-blown panic attack when I saw my cousin climbing on the off-trail cliffs. I thought I was going to throw up and cry at the same time. I started breathing really quickly and I HAD to get out of there right then. So, apparently, I can do things where I'm strapped in (chairlifts) but not things where I am not strapped in (Badlands). In fact, I'm panicky right now just thinking about it. This picture was taken at the height of my terror. I fake it well, huh?

And the first that I'm most proud of, I don't have a picture of. Oh well.
This morning, I drank coffee while reading the NY Times. You did read correctly. I have decided to become more politically aware and so began this morning with the Times. Thanks, Will!

Hope everyone else has had a great week! Tomorrow, we drive 6 hours in the car followed by 5 or 6 hours the next day. Should be exciting.

Trout: 256 Taylor/Jensen: 0

We didn't catch anything. All day. The trout didn't like any of the flies or lures or power bait. Stupid South Dakota Trout. But wasn't it beautiful???

We Made It!!!

We have made it to South Dakota!! After several mishaps, we are officially in our "cabin on the lake." On Saturday night we were staying in a hotel we booked through Priceline in Mitchell, South Dakota. Well, it just so happened that there was a big rodeo in town so EVERY ROOM was booked. There was a tad bit of miscommunication so our rooms were not all next to each other. Frustrating night for everyone involved but we made it out alive.
Next morning: Corn Palace. Or as I like to call it: Biggest Disappointment of South Dakota. Ok, the corn murals were pretty cool. But it's basically just a tourist trap. And there was no corn maze. I had been led to believe there was a fantastic corn maze along with the Corn Palace. Not true.
Also the same day, we drove to Custer where we're staying for the week. This cabin is supposed to sleep 10. That is only made possible with 3 "pull-out" twin mattresses aka gymnastic pads. Also, it requires 2 people to sleep in a bed the size of one in the dorm. Man oh man. But, don't worry, we figured out a way to let everyone have a place to sleep.
AND. We just got back from Mount Rushmore. Definitely worth it. I may be a nerd, but I LOVED the guided tour provided by the handheld wands.
Well that's all the update for now. Next stop: Jewel Cave. I'll keep you posted.

Let's hope all 8 of us make it back alive

That's right, everyone. It's time for Family Vacation 2009. South Dakota, here we come.

4 parents. 4 kids, ages 11-20. 10 hours in the car tomorrow. We might be crazy.

It will be fun. I hear Mount Rushmore is great, which is the main reason we're going to the big SD. But we're also doing tons of other fun family friendly festivities like Wall drug, the corn maze, Pirate's cove putt-putt, the prairie dog town, and other edge-of-your-seat, action-packed activities.

Well, I'm basically done posting what I planned to post today, but I don't feel like I can leave for the next week without addressing the one thing on everyone's mind. Ok, probably just my mind since the majority of you don't know what the heck this is.
Sooner Youth Camp.
If you look here, you should be able to catch just a glimpse of what this place means to me. I can't believe I won't be spending the 3rd week of July in the blazing heat of Ardmore, OK. I will not sing 'My God and I' under the stars at all next week. I won't bang on any tables in order to speak at meal times. I won't be shouting EAT! before every meal. I won't sing 'Heavenly Medley' til the counselors make us leave for sports. And I won't see any of the amazing people I've grown to love because of this amazing camp.
But it's okay. Sooner probably defined who I was for a large portion of my very short life. It doesn't anymore, and I'm okay with that. I will miss it, but I'm ready to make new memories for the 3rd week of July.

"When life's evening shadows, hide life's morning blues, dear ole' Sooner Youth Camp, I'll remember you."

Official Okie

Today I spent over 2 hours at the DPS getting my Oklahoma license. I've been here for 2 years, it's probably time. Let me tell ya, the DPS is the place to be. When I got there they were on #271, I was 304. It took 2 hours to go through about 33 numbers but about 15 or so of those were people who had left. There HAS to be a more efficient way to do this. Maybe not.

Anyway, I am now officially an Oklahoman. My Texas driver's license with 17-year-old me on it was all I had left of my Texas roots. Or trunk. Or whatever it would be considered. But I do think I consider Oklahoma home, now. Weird.

Days with Davis

Last week I spent 3 days hanging out with this crazy kid. I had so much fun. We discussed the bigger questions in life like what King George III really died of and if warfare would be possible on Mars. I watched as he translated English to Hebrew and back again. I was taught how to play Stick Wars and learned the finer points of battle techniques when using wizards. I was also horribly beat at every game we played: Shut the Box, Air-hockey, Putt-Putt, Monopoly (he won on a technicality). It was great.
He shot his cannon at the camera right before it went off. He was thrilled. We fed these lovely things at the putt-putt place. It was REALLY hot that day.We had to cool off with Orangetree. Of course.


In other news: I decided to start on my Germany scrapbook today. I printed off all 184 pictures I wanted for under $20! CVS photo has GREAT discounts. Hobby Lobby also happened to be having a 50% off sale on all scrapbooks and paper refills. So I got all that for $17. It was a wonderful day in scrapbook world.

Italy (Venice, Florence, Milan(ish))

So at the end of the trip we went on free travel. One group went to Berlin and my group went to Italy. It was... interesting. The cities we went to were beautiful and I did have a good time. I think I would do it all again if I could... maybe. I will say: If you decide to go to a foreign country, book your hostels in advance (we didn't), bring enough money (most of us didn't), be nice to the people in your group (I definitely wasn't all the time), and don't try to see 3 cities in 4 days (we did). Besides that, it was great!!

My wonderful roommate for the trip, Courtney, and I in Venice.We had a little photo-shoot on a bridge in Venice. One of many mishaps on our trip. Our train was delayed at this station, Grizzano M., for 2 hours because there was a wreck on the tracks the day BEFORE. Italian transportation. Go figure. Florence was beautiful!! The whole group. From left: Andy, Courtney, Jason, Me, GregBreath-taking Florence! Is it sad that I thought of "While You Were Sleeping" the whole time I was looking at this??And again. This sign wasn't exactly what we thought it was. We ended up walking much more than the 9 km we thought we would be walking.Pretty self-explanatory. Bites on my arms. If you think these were bad, you should have seen my legs. Stupid Italian bugs.It takes a lot of confidence in your friendship with your blog readers to put this picture up. These are my feet after walking all those miles. That is pure Italian dirt, my friends. Beautiful.