Update: Love My Life

Dear Blog Readers:

I know the the holidays are upon us, so I thought I would take a few minutes to update a few fun adventures I had this summer. Come along for the fun photo journey and enjoy.

First of all, did tons of hiking with my sister, Stephanie, mostly in Zion national park. On this particular hike, we practiced our laughing and rock climbing skills:

Then, I went to Thailand and Indonesia with friends and to visit friends; this picture was taken at our beach resort.

This picture is in Bali:

Then, my sister, Stephanie and my cousin Heather came to Thailand. I took this picture while riding on a motorcycle taxi in front of them. Seriously good times. I was able to be in SE Asia for about 6 weeks.

Next, my family celebrated my Grandpa Johnson's 95th Birthday with a family reunion in Oregon!! This is everyone who came from far and wide...even Canada!

My Grandpa swinging on the swing at my parents house at 95!

Among other races, I ran the Hood to Coast for the first time with my family...best time EVER! It was fun to run with my brother Travis and my mom.

And also my lovely cousins:

There was also a recent visit to Arizona to visit my brother Matt and his family, a few new additions to the family, and some birthday party...stay tuned for more. I'll post some more pics. Having a great time and loving my life, family and friends! Can't wait for the holidays!

Aunt Margo

I have been an aunt another two times this summer. Once in July when Peter and Mary had Nyree, and a few weeks ago when Tanya and Travis added Charlotte to the brood. Love and miss them both so much!

Tanya's blog: treyandlucy.blogspot.com

I will have to get some pictures of Nyree to show how precious she is.

Hope to see you guys soon.

Love, Aunt Margie

The cost of hurt feet...$5?

There is always an adventure to be had in Asia! A group of 6 friends came to Thailand, went home, and I went to Indonesia, taking advantage of having a friend there that could show me around. We went to a cultural show that was pretty cool.

Jake posted a blog about it if you are interested in an informational explanation of what we saw.

www.statesocietyandme.blogspot.com

In other news, I ran over the foot of an Indonesian man and then had to pay him off which made everything better?!?

It went like this, we were riding around a track in these colorfully lit carts that have bike wheels on the bottom and a steering wheel in the front.


Seems pretty fun and harmless, right?? It was until I decided I wanted to drive it! :)


The steering wheel pulled terribly to the left and it didn't help that I was laughing and talking while I was driving, when all of a sudden...BOOM! I looked at the object that I hit just in time to see a skinny Indonesian man limp away! Onlookers saw the color of my skin and grabbed the cart we were driving in yelling at us to 'STOP' because the "white girl hit him!" This was the picture right before impact...



One of the Indo friends I was with spoke pretty good English so we ran over to where the guy was sitting...who by this time had attracted quite a crowd. I looked at his foot, nothing looked broken, but he said he was in great pain. He said the wheel grazed his foot, not ran over it but it obviously still hurt. I wish I would have snapped a picture of him sitting there.

I repeatedly told him I was sorry but he would not make eye contact with me. As my friend interpreted for me, he was saying that he was going to have to go to the doctor.

Then an older Indo man pulled out some menthol drops and started rubbing it on the victims' foot. Continuing to apologize, I asked what they wanted me to do when my friend said that one of the men said I needed to pay him. I asked how much and he said $5 would be enough which is 50,000 rupiah (Indo money).

I handed the money too him and immediately the man rubbed his foot and said it felt better and that he didn't need to go to the doctor. When my friend interpreted this for me, I reached out and handed him another 50,000 or $5. Still not making eye contact, the victim lifted his foot up, wiggled his toes and said that everything was going to be alright.

Walking away, my Indo friend told me that I gave him way too much money, that the initial $5 was plenty!

I asked what would have happened if an Indonesian would have hit him. "Less money would have been paid, or maybe they would not have stopped at all. But they saw you were white, you had no choice but to pay."

That $10 was a lot of money for that guy...but what is the cost of a hurt foot? AT least I didn't hit the Lexus SUV that he was standing in front of!


Back in Bangkok, I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my sister and cousin for the adventure to continue!!

P.S. This is what happens to your feet when you razor sharp coral gets to them...

Photos are fun.

I am still learning a lot about photography and my friend Andrea is always nice enough to let me practice on her and family...this time her kids. Here is a little idea of how our time went; I know I still have a lot to practice!

You may recognize them...they have been on the blog before and are getting older and cuter than ever!


Remember Gabe...
And Talia...



During the shoot, some people got hungry....

And some people just woke up from a nap...



We had some moments of surprise...

And contentment...
But we ended up with lots of kisses...


Thanks Andrea!

Fun in OREGON

I love visiting home...lucky for me I have been able to be here for the last month helping take care of my sister in law and her kids...and sometimes her husband. Tanya is pregnant (yeah!) and very sick (BOO!)

Check out her blog to see the story... treyandlucy.blogspot.com

We have been having a blast and I am so glad to be here.

We have been to the Safari, Children's Museum, swimming, parks bike rides, scooter rides and more. Fridays has been our movie day. We pick a movie, go to and early showing, and are usually the only people in the whole theater (it's happened twice). We play tag, hide and go seek, make shadow puppets on the screen and have a great time!

This is us, when we went to see the Justin Bieber Movie in 3D!

You read it correctly, Justin Bieber, and this weekend is Greyson's birthday party.

Loving my time here...may want to make it permanent.....

Meet Jonah...

Here is my newest nephew, Jonah Clark Smith born last week. This is Matt and Kathryn's second baby. I have loved visiting and helping to take care of him and his brother Ezra.

I could not help but snap a few pics the first hour I was there!

Just look at these little faces!! Who wouldn't love them!

Jonah Clark Smith: 5 days old

This is Ezra...his older brother who had just finished a little snack!

It never snows here....

It never snows here in the high desert... But the other night it did! I love the snow for short periods of time

and was so happy when I saw this in Town Square...

Then of course I had to make a snow man and with a little help from a friend, came up with this guy!

I held his hand...

Building him was such hard work I started getting hungry...

I didn't eat him all gone or his true friend would have been so sad!

And then it he was stubble the next day. :( I will miss that guy.