goodbye june...

June came and went so fast! I can't believe tomorrow is July 1st!  Even though I am working, we have managed to fit a few fun activities in the mix.  We had a wedding in the family, BBQ's, Jake's work Lagoon day, and a few fun activities at school to end the year out right!  Tomorrow is my last day of school.  I'm really sad.  I had a really cute class this year. Full of life, energy, and hilarious stories to come home and tell the fam.  It's hard when you get so emotionally attached and then have to start all over in three weeks.
Here are a few pictures to share...

Jake's work had a family Lagoon day.  Always some good people watching there. 

Jake's little brother Kyle got married last Saturday.  It was such a PERFECT beautiful day.  They had their reception in this darling little lodge called "Snowed Inn" right on Park City Mountain Resort.  They had to shuttle people up there because you couldn't drive cars up.  It was a party! 

This picture makes me smile.  My class LOVED doing chalk art.  The simple pleasures.  The giggles they had tracing each other's bodies was my favorite.  

I'm giving my class these little treat bags with Swedish fish that say You are o"fish"ally a second grader!   I'm going to miss these little rugrats!

Something else that has been consuming all my energy lately is this cleanse I am doing for two weeks.  I have had a cough for about five years and been to the Dr. numerous times but have never found a solution.  My mom has a friend with a daughter who has had the same thing.  She found out she had something called Candida.  I looked up online all the symptoms and I had most of them.  SO I am doing something called the Candida diet.  Basically I can't eat sugar, bread, yeast, or fruit for two weeks.  I've had a few people say well, what do you eat?  I kind of laugh because I still eat most of the same foods I eat already minus bread, dairy, fruit and the occasional treat.  Yes, it's tough but it's not as bad as I thought it would be-but I'm only on day 3 today.  I was worried that I would get a little sick but so far I have felt great!  I've been a little hungry because I'm eating a lot less.  But I have been eating a ton of Quinoa (this is the best grain ever and very good for you too.  It's a good alternative to rice), red and yellow peppers, spinach, meat, asparagus, avocado, celery with almond butter (a healthy alternative to peanut butter).  I have also been cooking with coconut oil.  This is supposedly really good for cardiovascular health.  I am so grateful that I was raised with a family with really healthy eating habits.  If I ate crap and fast food every day of my life this diet would be super hard, but since I generally eat pretty healthy I'm feelin' great and maybe even convincing Jake to go on a "cleanse" next week.  I'd modify it for him but he said, yeah I'll wait after the 4th of July.  I said there's NEVER a good time to start a diet. So I'm holding you to it Jake!  So hopefully with all this good eating and herb supplements, I will get rid of this nasty infection in my body.  Another plus is that I've lost a few lb's.  haha It's all about self control and I haven't cheated. Not even a little bit.

One last thing...I know most of you watch the Bachelorette.  I'm sorry but Ashley just bugs me.  There's not much to her and she's kind of dumb.  And yes, I continue to watch it, but she just doesn't really do it for me.  Does anyone else feel the same way or am I crazy??

Summer Vacay

Well, my summer vacation came and went really quick!  My summer break started on May 20th and I had to go back to work June 8th.  It went by waaaay too fast this time. I got really sick the first week and the second week we had a beautiful trip to Seattle to visit family.  The bad new is I deleted every single picture from our whole trip!  I about shot myself. (Hence the delay of this post) I thought they were imported to my computer but they weren't.  Oh well, just an excuse to go back now!  I was really upset because we got some very beautiful pictures.  So here are just a few things we've been up to lately.  

My break started out with a trip to the dentist followed by a HORRIBLE cold.

After a week, I finally decided to go to the Dr. thinking I had a sinus infection or something, but I just wasted my $$ for them to tell me I just had a cold.  When I got there I was coughing so bad they made me put this on.  Not a good first week of my break.  

We went to Bear Lake for Memorial Day, but those pictures are down the drain as well, plus I was still sick and didn't take too many pictures.  

I finally started to feel better when we went to Seattle.  It was just Jake and me.  I had never been there before and it is such a beautiful city.  The first day we got there we went to our cute little hotel in Queen Anne.  It was such a charming little place.  They gave us a big room in the corner so we had windows on both sides of the room.  We dropped our stuff off and headed out downtown.  It was rainy the whole day so we decided to make it a shopping day.  They have great shopping in Seattle.  Not to mention Nordstrom's Flagship store! 

Here is a picture I luckily took from my phone.  

We went down to Pike's market and had lunch overlooking the ocean.  

After we were all shopped out, we went home and got ready for dinner at this charming little Mexican restaurant called Peso's right up the street from our hotel.  It was so delicious.  It's not often when you can get delicious, fresh Mexican seafood. After our dinner we took a long walk around the city down to the pier.  It had finally stopped raining and turned out to be a perfect night for a walk down to the park. We then went back to hotel where they have free DVD rentals.  They didn't have a ton of choices so we grabbed a random one but decided to catch up on our Bachelorette instead.  Speaking of  Bachelorette, why do I watch this crap? haha 

The next day we went down to Pike's market again, took some cool video's of the fishmongers throwing the fish. (I can't think about the fact that we have no footage! It makes me so upset.) 

We then took a ferry over to Bainbridge.  It started to rain right when the ferry got there, but it was so lush and green.  It all reminded me of all the Twilight movies.  Jake kept joking that he saw Edward in the forest.  Once we got to the island, we found a really yummy Thai restaurant.  Don't remember the name, but it's probably the only Thai place on the island.  I highly recommend it.  

Here is a picture on the boat looking back at the city.  

That night we had a delicious dinner at Ivar's right on the pier.  Very yummy clam chowder.  (Thanks for the suggestion Cami!)

The next morning we took the Greyhound bus-yes that's right, we took the bus down to Kennewick where Jake's cousins live.  It was half the price of renting a car so we said why not!  It was my first time on a Greyhound and it will probably be my last.  Put in Jake's words,  it smelled like weed, campbell's soup, and B.O.  it was horrible.  Not to mention it stopped every 5 minutes!  It was fun though, another adventure we'll never forget!  

We had a good time in Kennewick with the whole Larsen clan for Jake's cousins graduation.  It was a good little vacation.  I hope to get back to Seattle soon!

In my front yard, there were these green things growing that I thought were ferns.  They then started to get buds on them and a few days later poppies are coming out like crazy!  They are so beautiful! The old people who used to own our house were big gardeners.  It's been so fun to see what little surprises keep popping up in our yard.  Every day I come home from work there are about ten new blooms on my poppies.  

I made this bouquet of flowers all from my yard!

On Saturday night, we went to see Super 8.  I LOVED it.  Such a great movie.  It totally reminded me of Goonies.  If you haven't seen it, I definitely recommend it.  

This is the theater right by our house.  I love the outside of it.  

Oh and I discovered a little gem right in the same parking lot!  There is a new nail salon called "Your nails, your way". "Or maybe it was your nail, your way".  haha Super cheesy name, but it was really nice, clean, and brand new!  I got a pedicure for $19 today.  The special is going on until July so if you need to get those toes looking cute for those new sandals, I would definitely recommend going there.  

I needed something for my front door but haven't found anything I liked.  Cami and Tara, you have inspired me to make one of these wreaths.  I loved both of yours and decided to make my own! I looked on the internet and found so many cute ones that I want to make another one-but it did take FOREVER to make for some reason.  Maybe next time it will be easier? Thanks for the cute idea girls!

My sister Mindy ran in the SanDiego100 last saturday.  Yes I said RAN 100 miles. It was all on trails in the mountains of Laguna.  She is one amazing girl!  She is one tough cookie.  Other than a few of her toes blistering together, she felt great the day after!  I don't know how we are siblings.  I probably couldn't even run one mile.  

Well that's about enough ranting for now.  I'm good for a few weeks right?  I just wanted to write a bit about my trip  and a few other things before I forget since I have no pictures to remember! 

P.S.  is it ok that I'm really sick of kids? 157th day of school, I'd say it's ok.  School is out July 1st.  Then I go to my last ESL class for two weeks, set up my classroom and the next school year starts July 26th.  It's going to be a busy summer trying to squeeze some fun in there somewhere.  

I hope you are all enjoying this beautiful weather because I sure am!   

One more thing, I promise!  Someone posted this on facebook and it's too funny not to share.  Glad I'm not that guy!

If you can't read it, it says "DEAR DAVE.  TELL YOUR GF UR WIFE & KIDS SAY HI.  P.S. I CLEANED OUT BANK! YOU'RE BROKE.

LOVE NIKKI AND KIDS."