Welcome Back Davies!

Have you read this article?  If not, you should.  It applauses Brandon Davies for not running or hiding, when suffering through the public humiliation of his actions earlier this year.  He didn't blame anyone for what he did.  He didn't criticize BYU for their standards.

Arthur Ashe said it best by saying:
"If you demand more from people, people will rise to meet the higher standards. You can get what you insist upon. So don't sell people's capacity to do the right thing short. People do summon their best selves when it's required of them."

Davies rose and trekked back, and we're glad to have him.

It's my blog, so I can post twice in one day if I want to.

Everyday I browse Deseret News.com and KSL.com.  While clicking random stories in today's Deseret News I came along this article.  Read it.  Enjoy it. And know where Provo is.

No longer a freshman....

Well I've officially been in school for one whole week, which means I am officially a sophomore.  There are good things and bad things about that.  I'm definitely going to miss being a freshman but a lot has changed in these short 4 months of summer.  Here is a list of things I missed and definitely did not miss over the past 4 months.

Over the summer I missed:

• devotionals
• friends
• sticking to a schedule
• going to the gym when it's still cold outside
• meeting the sis' on campus
• periodicals
• my cubicle in the corner on the second floor
• FHE
• ward prayers

Over the summer I DIDN'T miss:

• homework, homework, and homework
• sitting through lectures given by monotoned professors
• walking to class and then sweating once in the building
• doing homework until late into the night

This upcoming year I will definitely miss:

• my meal plan
• only having to walk 3 minutes to class
• not being in classes where married couples cuddle together

Story of the Week

Seeing that this week was the first week of school, and most students probably feel overwhelmed I thought this story from President Monson might be a little reassuring that you are not alone.  Everybody, generally speaking, has a hard time in school.

“Study and prepare for your life’s work in a field that you enjoy, because you are going to spend a good share of your life in that field. . . .

“Have discipline in your preparations. Have checkpoints where you can determine if you’re on course.

“I hope that you are not afraid of tough classes. I never did have a ‘cinch’ class. I hope that you are not afraid of lengthy periods of preparation. Burn the midnight oil. Don’t procrastinate like my older sister, who after a late date rationalized, ‘I have a test tomorrow, but I am weary. What is more important, my health or my test? Aha, my health! I need my sleep.’ So she slept. I won’t say what happened to the test. 

“You simply have to apply yourself. I hope that you want to be so well equipped that you can compete in this competitive world. I hope that you will learn to take responsibility for your decisions, whether they be in your courses of study which you elect to take, or whether they be in the direction of the academic attainments which you strive to achieve. 

“Should you become discouraged or feel burdened down, remember that others have passed this same way; they have endured and then have achieved. When we have done all that we are able to do, we can then rely on God’s promised help.”

Last Hoorah

   Last Monday I started the end of my summer by flying into Long Beach to visit my roommate Rachel in Lakewood.  It was great to see her and my other two roommates, who flew in from Alaska, again.  My vacation started on Monday when I left home at 7 A.M. to catch a flight into Long Beach.  I had never flown by myself before so I was a little nervous.  The guy I sat next to on the plane was nice enough but we had exhausted all small-talk before we even reached the runway.  In the middle of the flight though he started to ask me what my friends and I would be doing for fun, and if we were going to go clubbing.  I told him that we don't drink or do drugs.  To this he replied, "that's smart, because you'll wake up the next morning remembering what you did the night before.  If I was younger I would probably know where the hot L.A. clubs are but now that I'm older I've stopped my wild ways."  After an awkward silence I said that my friends and I were maybe going to do a bonfire on the beach.  He smiled and asked me if I had seen Hangover 2, which I hadn't, and then told me the premise of it.  Apparently the premise is about these men who wake up one morning and can't remember what they did last night even though they hadn't had a drop of alcohol.  I guess then they realize that someone had put weed or pot or something in the marshmallows used for the s'mores.  So the nice 60 year old man next to me on the plane advises me, "if there are boys going with you girls, don't eat their marshmallows."  I was about dying of laughter inside because I didn't think we would have that problem.  After that conversation I was thankful that we were landing so I didn't have to make awkward small-talk with strangers.

   After I landed Rachel, Tess, and Cara picked my up and took my stuff to Rachel's house.  We drove to the mall and then spent most of Monday at Seal Beach with us four where....wait for it..... I didn't get sunburned.  That night we watched a movie called Arthur.  Wasn't my favorite movie but it was kinda funny.  I don't think my family would like it though because it's about a 30 something old who still has a nanny.

   On Tuesday we woke up and went kayaking at Huntington Harbor with Rachel's brother, Matthew.  I must say it was a fun place to go kayaking for your first time.  I was afraid I would tip over but I didn't, which was good.  That night Rachel, Tess, Cara, and I drove to Anaheim to watch the fireworks at Downtown Disney.  Driving home at 11 o'clock at night we heard a loud bang or pop sound and it sounded like something had just hit our car.  I thought my door had become opened somehow and then felt myself start to sink a little bit.  I told Rachel I thought she had a flat tire so we pulled over, and sure enough the tire on my side was totally flat.  I was a little worried that we had a flat on an L.A. freeway at 11 P.M. but thankfully Rachel's dad and brother came to change the tire for us.

   On Wednesday we waited for the car to get a new tire and then us four girls and Matthew headed to Huntington Beach for the afternoon.  At Seal Beach I hadn't gotten in the water because I didn't want to get wet but on Wednesday I gave in and plunged into the cold ocean.  I swallowed a ton of salt water but it was worth it to be in the water.  Mom will also be glad to know that I didn't get sunburned on that day either.  After we got back from the beach we ate dinner and watched Sidney White.  It's an Amanda Bynes movie that I had never heard of but again I thought I was pretty funny.  I don't think my family would like this movie though either because, well, it has Amanda Bynes in it.  After the movie we retired to bed because we had to get up really early the next morning.

   Thursday morning we woke up at 3:30 A.M. and got on the road at 4:02 to drive back to Provo.  We surprisingly fit Rachel's bag, Matthews bag, Rachel's moms bag, Tess' bag, and my bag in the car.  Cara's we had to strap to the top of the car.  We drove to St. George where we took a break to visit Rachel's cousins.  Her cousin Paul was attacked by two lions on his mission a couple months ago and it was the first time Rachel had seen him since he got back.  He had to have his left arm amputated right above the elbow but he was in really good spirits.  It's amazing how trials come into our lives but how the Lord gives us strength to carry on and not let those trials keep us from living life.

   After leaving her cousins house we ate lunch at Costco, where Cara and Tess had their first polygamist siting, and then got back in the car and drove for another 4 hours.  In the car we watched Kung Fu Panda and Holes.  Even though we were distracted from the long car ride it was nice to come into Utah valley and see the Y on the mountain.  That night Cara, Cara's brother, Tess, and I went over to Cara and David's aunts house for dinner.  After David let us come see the new Heritage dorms.  Man those dorms are huge, they make my dorm from last year look like a dump.  My apartment this year looks like a shack compared to it, but regardless we moved stuff in to our apartment and did a lot of deep cleaning that night.

   It's nice to be out of the dorms but at the same time I miss it.  Last night our friend Tricia came to visit us and there was an awesome lightning storm outside so we decided to take a drive above the temple to watch it.  When we were driving past Helaman Halls, we wanted to walk through our old hall and then go say hi to our friend Chris who is an R.A. in a different building.  It was weird walking past my old room because it feels like it had only been like two weeks since I had been there.

   Well this has been a very long post and I'd be surprised if you even read down this far.  But I'll close this post now but saying Happy Sunday and I hope the semester starts well tomorrow.

End of Summer

It's that time of year again.  Usually I'm excited to get back to school but this past week I've been surprisingly wanting it to stay summer.  I'm excited to get back to Provo but I've had a pretty amazing summer and it's not over yet.

Last Tuesday Rachel, mom, dad, and I left for California.  We stayed over in Truckee and then finished our drive the next day to San Francisco.  If you've ever made the drive from Utah to Northern California you know the Nevada portion is pretty dull and long.  Only when we got out of Nevada did I begin to enjoy the drive.  The best part was when we passed a mini golf course in Sacramento whose sign said "Jimmer plays free."

So here is how our trip panned out:

Tuesday:  Leave Salt Lake

Wednesday:  Shop at the outlets in Vacaville, lunch in Sonoma, Golden Gate bridge, Bi-Rite ice cream (if you ever go, get ricanela which is basically snickerdoodle), Humphry Slocombe ice cream (yes, we did two ice cream places in one outing, but definitely skip this store next time you're in San Francisco.  It' has the weirdest flavors),  Pacific Catch for dinner (one of our favorites), China Beach, and drive thru Sea Cliff

Thursday:  Breakfast at Tartines, pick Brooke up from the Oakland airport,  pick her bags up from the San Francisco airport, lunch on the marina, "shop" on Fillmore street, shop in Union Square, Fort Point, dinner at La Canasta, and nighttime walk thru Cow Hollow neighborhood

Friday: Breakfast at Tartines (again), baptisms at the Oakland temple, antique and lace stores in Berkeley, lunch at Netties, Cable Car museum with dad, walk back thru dad's old neighborhood, Ghirardellis

Saturday:  go back to Oakland to pick up Brookes camera from the temple, go back to the Vacaville outlets to shop a little more, walk along the Nevada freeway to pick up part of the car that blew off, watch Undercover Boss to pass time, and arrive home at 11:45 P.M.

Oakland airport 

Fort Point

Walking back from the Cable Car museum with the Transamerica building in the background

Mom and dad's old apartment on Pacific

Now, less than 18 hours after getting home I am doing laundry and packing again to head back to California, this time Long Beach.  I'll report on that later.

Christmas in August?

As most of the people reading this blog know, I absolutely L.O.V.E. the holidays.  If I could, I would just have September, October, November, and December rotate in a calendar year.  Well this year I seem to have caught the Christmas bug a little bit early.  It all started the other day I was talking to my friend James about the good old days of singing with Madrigals at Christmas time.  Well now I have seasonal depression because I wish it was winter.  I watched Miracle on 34th Street tonight and now I'm listening to my Pop Christmas station on Pandora.  Yes, I know, it's weird that I am listening to holiday music in August.  Although I can't help myself.

It's kind of a family joke about me and Christmas.  I love decorating the tree on my birthday (which is always over Thanksgiving break) and dragging one of my sisters to shop at Modern Display at least twice during December, and I usually add 3 or 4 glass ornaments to my collection.  This year I started my shopping early.  On our vacation a couple weeks ago we found a store across from Quincy Market called Christmas in Boston.  I was seriously in heaven and wanted to move there just to work at the store.  Let's just say I got a few ornaments.  After we walked out about $100 poorer, Erin joked that when my parents die all my sisters will get the furniture and valuable stuff and, well, I'll get the Christmas ornaments.  But hey, I wouldn't complain! And at least my house will look festive.

As a friend just stated right now and you're probably thinking, "Abby. Stop that right now! Summer needs to stay."  Well agree with her or not, but for now I'm going to fall asleep and hopefully dream of snow, Christmas lights, Grandpas carved Santas, and Mannheim steamroller music.

The before and after of last years tree

Rise and Shout

Today is the day that BYU all-sports passes go on sale.  I thought that this year since I'm actually buying one I should probably learn the fight song.  I'm totally behind because if I was this kid my parent's would've taught it to me 17 years ago.  I guess you're never too young to learn the BYU fight song.  In case you can't understand what he's saying, I've posted the lyrics for your benefit.

Rise, all loyal Cougars

And hurl your challenge to the foe.

We will fight, day or night,

Rain or snow.

Loyal, strong and true,

Wear the White and Blue.

As we sing, get set to spring.

Come on Cougars, it's up to you!

(STAND)

So Rise and Shout, the Cougars are out

We're on a trail to fame and glory,

Rise and shout, our cheers will ring out

As we unfold our vict'ry story.

On we go to vanquish the foe

For Alma Mater's sons and daughters

As we join in song,

In praise of you, our faith is strong.

We'll raise our colors high in the blue

And cheer our Cougars of BYU.

Who said vacations were suppose to be relaxing?!

First off, sorry if this gets long or boring but since I pretty much stink at keeping up to date on my journal writing I have to archive my family adventures somewhere, right?  So here is the water-downed version of the Barker family vacation these past two weeks:

Day 1 - Monday (Salt Lake City --> Montpelier, Vermont)

• Find my families shoe apparel for this years Christmas card in the SkyMall magazine.  They are quite stylish if I say so myself.  Haha, yeah right.
• Fly into Boston
• Arrive in Montpelier

***Props to my mom for actually getting on the airplane.  Her worst fear is flying so this was a huge thing for her.

Day 2 - Tuesday (Montpelier)

• Home of Saint-Gaudens
• Covered bridge hunting
• Enfield
• King Arthur Flour Co.
• Erin's reading (from her book Light.  I recommend buying it when she becomes a famous author)
• Maple cremees

Day 3 - Wednesday (Montpelier)

• Rock of Ages
• Bragg Family Farm (maple farm)
• Erin's graduation

Day 4 - Thursday (Montpelier --> Burlington, Vermont)

• Tour state capitol
• Morse Farm (maple farm)
• Otis the girl goat (she supposedly did her own tricks)
• Sharon, Vermont
• Ben and Jerry's tour
• the Flying Pig Bookstore
• Shelburne Museum (stifling hot)

Day 5 - Friday (Burlington --> Glens Falls, New York)

• Shelburne Museum
• Ferry Ride (Erin was pretty excited about this)
• Fort Ticonderoga
• Lake George
• Martha's Dandee Creme
• Target

Day 6 - Saturday (Glens Falls --> Rochester, New York)

• Drive by Jimmer's house (yes, we tracked down Jimmer's address in Glens Falls, New York)
• Palmyra (Joseph Smith farm, Sacred Grove, Grandin's bookstore, Hill Cumorah, Fayette)

Day 7 - Sunday (Rochester --> Albany, New York)

• Niagara Falls
• Teach mom how to use the GPS on dads iPhone
• Erie Canal locks
• Long drive back to Albany

Day 8 - Monday (Albany --> Salem, Massachusetts)

• Hancock Shaker Village
• Finz (best dinner I've ever had)

Day 9 - Tuesday (Salem --> Boston, Massachusetts)

• The House of Seven Gables
• Marblehead
• Challenge to find the earliest built house
• Lexington and Concord
• Walden Pond (which is actually like a lake)
• Sleepy Hollow Cemetery
• Louisa May Alcott's home
• Boston Public Library
• Boston Common

Day 10 - Wednesday (Boston)

• Freedom trail tour (Faneuil Hall, State House, old South and North Church, Paul Revere's house, etc.)
• Quincy Market
• Boston Barker's for lunch (worst hot dog ever.  Sad that my name is connected to it.)
• Christmas in Boston (Best stop of the trip.  This store had hundreds of christmas ornaments, which I am a sucker for)
• Granary Burying Ground (my great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents are buried there)
• Free night at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts

Day 11 - Thursday (Boston --> Salt Lake City, Utah)

• Boston Duck Tours
• Cambridge
• Fenway Park
• Plane ride home
• Welcomed back in the long-term parking by Chug

***Double props to my mom for actually getting back on the plane to come home.  She handled the turbulence better than I did.  I'm very proud of her.

The end's not near, it's here.

Lehman Caves and 4th of July

A week ago last Friday mom, dad, and I took a day trip over the state border into Nevada.  The Great Basin National Park might look bland from the outside but it's what inside that counts.  I've never been in a cave before but I must say they're pretty cool.  We toured the inside of Lehman caves and then drove about 5,000 feet up to get a view of the desolate land below.  It was a long day but it was fun to get out.

Every year I always think the 4th of July is going to be just amazing and then it never really is.  This year wasn't amazing but it wasn't as boring as previous years.  Dad woke me up much too early and we walked up the hill to This is the Place Heritage Park.  For those of you who aren't familiar with Salt Lake, it is at the base of Emigration Canyon, which is the canyon where, when entering the Salt Lake valley, Brigham Young said the famous phrase, "this is the right place, drive on."  Dad and I walked around for a minute and enjoyed the view of the valley and of the mountains, then proceeded back home.

Thanks to R.C. Willey, Sugarhouse Park had the funds this year to set off fireworks.  It was also the first year that I've ever watched from the base of the park.  We were literally right underneath them.  However since, my feet have killed from walking back to the car...stupid shoes with no support in them.

Stwart, me, and Kim (not picture: Misha and Alexandra)

"Fire in the Hole!!!!"

....more like fire on the hill.  Remember the picture similar to this this one from a couple posts ago?

This was the view from the Living Room last Monday.

This is the Living Room a couple hours ago.  Right now the fire has even reached higher up.  So now that whole picture would be black.  What you don't see is that the whole mountain side to the left is now charcoaled.  The hike up the mountain is no longer green.  It is still burning but hopefully it will burn out by tomorrow morning cause dad wants to hike it at 7 A.M.  I bet it won't be open by then but in case if it is than we will be experiencing a very different path up to our favorite hike and favorite view of the Salt Lake valley.

The only good thing that came from this was the sunset tonight.....oh and the fact that it smells like fire.  I love that smell.

The Help

I recently finished The Help.  I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't read it yet.  No wonder it's a best seller.  Now I am anxiously awaiting August 10th when the movie is released.

New Obsession:

Instagram

Helper, Utah

The newest member of the Barker family.

It's an Ironrite Mangle Ironer which will soon be resident of mom's sewing room.

Arrival at Salt Lake airport.  

Wouldn't this picture be perfect for a SkyMall magazine?

Summer leaves

Salt Lake valley from the Living Room

Happy Father's Day!

This is my dad-

Here are ten reasons why I love my dad (in no particular order)-
1.  He pushes me to do my best but isn't disappointed if I fail as long as I try my hardest
2.  He took off work to come to ALL of my tennis matches in high school, even if they were away matches that he had to drive 30 miles to get to
3.  He watches the History Channel
4.  He fills my car up with gas before I even wake up in the morning
5.  He loves to go out to the airport to watch planes land
6.  His favorite literature is church literature
7.  He laughs at my jokes
8.  He makes funny faces
9.  He loves to talk about his childhood and his family
10.  He never raises his voice at his kids

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world.

I love you!

Og'dee'n

Yesterday I spent the day watching after three adorable kids.  In the morning I went up to the Ogden Country Club to pick up Johnny and Jackson where their brother was in a golf tournament (I might mention he won, congrats Josh).  I was a couple minutes early so I decided to go across the street to the cemetery and visit my grandma and grandpa Barkers' graves.  I don't know who, but someone had put flowers on grandma's grave a couple days before for her birthday.  They looked beautiful.

So after I spent a couple minutes in the Washington Heights Cemetery I picked the boys up and took the boys down to Union Station where they have an amazing gun, car, and train exhibit.  The boys loved the trains.  We spent about 3 hours there looking at the exhibits, playing with little train toys, and climbing on the trains outside.  Jackson didn't want to leave.

After coming home from Ogden I had just enough time to grab a quick dinner and head over to my cousins house to hang out with Caroline.  We had a jolly good time, as we always do.  We sent some pictures and voice messages to Rachel in D.C., got a treat from Hires, watched Monsters Inc., and read a book about a princess knight all before 9:30 pm.

I can't wait to spend a whole 24 hours with this girl and her sister next week.

Well now that I'm done blogging I'm going to curl up in a blanket and watch Tron and I Am Number 4.

Happy Saturday!

Starting to feel like Summer!

Last week I finished working full-time as a nanny.  Boy am I going to miss the little man.  The family moved out of the ward last Friday, which was the last day I worked full time because my employer is a school teacher and school got out for the summer.  These two pictures are my favorite from the last day on the job.  The first is Johnny adorned with keys.  He LOVES all kinds of keys.  While the movers were moving furniture we were playing with about 6 sets of keys on the kitchen counter.  He loved clanking them around and putting them on as necklaces, bracelets, and even rings.  I love his facial expression and fuzzball-hair in this picture.

The second picture is Johnny watching the movers pull up in front of the house.  He was in awe of the huge truck in the street.  Please note the shoes he's wearing.

Johnny found my rape whistle on my keychain and is obsessed with it.  I love how he laughs and how his face lights up when he whistles it.

It's nice to finally somewhat have a summer, where I have nothing to do in the day and can hang out with friends and family at night, but I miss this little tike and all of his antics more than I thought I would.

I have been occupying my time by sleeping in late, hitting up the gym, watching movies, and reading books.  Oh and I've helped in the yard.  My parents worked hard to clean it up in time for Brooke's homecoming.  She did a great job and had a pretty good turnout at the house after.

with the Dee cousins (minus Elisabeth) at Brooke's homecoming

Since the yard was clean, Erin, Brooke, and I decided to throw a BBQ last night.  We invited 200 or so people and a fair amount actually showed up.....except mostly Erin's friends.  Brooke and I contributed a whopping 12 guests.  I figured it would mostly be Erin's friends since she has lived here longer than we have and knows more people.  It actually wasn't as bad as I am making it sound, it was good to meet a few new people.  Plus, dad voluntarily put up twinkle lights in the backyard for us so we could have some light.  He said my Grandpa Barker use to put lights up in their backyard during the summer and they would sit on the back porch and enjoy the summer nights together.

Not all this week has been fun though.  I went down with mom and dad to Spring City to check on the bee situation.  A couple weeks ago we had a couple hundred bees in the attic.  Some dead.  Some alive.  Well we walk in the other day and there are about a hundred dead bees all around the mudroom and kitchen.  I guess it's a good thing because there weren't any anywhere else in the house and there were no live ones int the attic.  It'll be a mystery to where they came from and why they came.  But for now they're gone.  In addition to having to help  (ok, maybe watch) mom clean up bees, a mosquito somehow made its way up my jeans and bit me on my thigh.  I had a bite the size of a hoppy taw that hurt like heck.  The last three nights I've gone to bed with an ice pack around my leg.  Thankfully, it's now the size of a dime and almost gone.

In other news this week:  I played a match against Gardner (see above picture with Dees; he's the only boy).  And I finally bought my ticket to visit one of my best friends and roommate, Rachel Fisher in a couple months.  I'm flying into to Long Beach a couple days before school starts and then we're going to drive back up to Provo to move into our new apartment.  I can't wait!

Have a great week, I know I will (I get to watch little Johnny a couple days this week)!