The Fourth of July and the Stadium of Fire

Independence Day morning, everybody came to hang out at Peter's parents house.  Games were played, soccer world cup was watched, and food was eaten.

Taking a nap together in their red, white and blue!

I told Peter towards the beginning of the summer that I wanted to go to a concert because I'd never been to one before.  We both heard earlier during the week of the 4th of July that Carrie Underwood was coming to the Stadium of Fire--a yearly Independence Day celebration at BYU stadium, so we decided to get tickets.  I was so excited!  I love Carrie Underwood.

Selfie in the Stadium

This celebration included all sorts of stuff. They had these cute little dancers from various dance companies dressed as cowgirls.  

Forming the Liberty Bell

Doing a Cowgirl dance!

They had skydivers with various flags.

Trampoline acrobats dressed as superheros.  They were pretty awesome and got some crazy height!

And then there was the Carrie Underwood concert.  I knew almost every song she sang, and it was awesome!  We were pretty far away, so we couldn't really see her see her, but it was just cool to hear her sing her songs live.  She sounds just like she does on the CD! (which actually is saying something what with autotune and such)

I made this one bigger so you can look really close for her.

Of course, it wouldn't be a 4th of July celebration without some fireworks!

In the middle of the fireworks they had a song.  The dancers had been given glow sticks and were sitting on lines drawn on the grass so that they formed the Statue of Liberty!

Our 4th of July went out with a bang!

Taylorsville Days

When I got off the plane from my trip to Kansas City, I went with my in-laws to the last evening of Taylorsville Days.  It's like a city fair/summer festival thing, with rides, fair food, concerts, and fireworks.  Unfortunately, Peter was working so he couldn't come.

Kylie and I rode a fun spinny ride.

Julie and Kylie convinced me to go on the Ferris wheel.  I discovered once I got on it was a bit higher than I thought it was. The seats kind of rocked, which made me nervous, too.  Julie actually took most of these pictures.

If you look real close, you can see Rex and Paul down there on the ground in the shade.

The seats were only big enough for two, so Kylie had to ride behind us. 

Enjoying our yummy fair food on the blanket.

They had a parasailing team do a little show.

Fireworks show!

It was a fun evening.

Skills USA Part Three: The Fun Arrives!

Thursday started the best part of the trip: my mom and sister arrived!  I didn't have anything I had to do for the competition, so we went out to play!  First stop was the Independence, Missouri visitors center for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  As we arrived, we had to take a picture of the Church of Christ Temple across the street.   It has such an interesting shape!

Inside the LDS visitor's center, we were greeted by an adorable, cheerful Sister missionary.  We chatted for a bit then just explored on our own.

This was in a play room for kids

 Not far from the visitor's center is the future lot for the Temple in Independence.

After the visitor's center, we went to Cafe Verona.  It had a fun atmosphere and decent food. 

Then we got to tour President Truman's house.  They wouldn't let us take pictures inside, but we heard some cool stories.  His wife lived in this house until she died, then immediately gave it to the government for preservation.

Then we went to Liberty Jail, where Joseph Smith and some of his companions were locked for a long, cold winter.  Revelations that became part of the Doctrine and Covenants were received in this jail.

Friday, we mainly went shopping, which was a lot of fun.  I got several cute outfits!  We tried to go to a movie, but it turned out the showing we looked up online was in 3D, which was too expensive for our tastes.  I think this actually turned out well because we got to spend more time together.

Friday night was the awards ceremony, where I found out I didn't win.  Again, it was flashy and loud.  Afterwards, we got ice cream at Baskin Robins as consolation :)

All in all, it was a fun trip, made especially so by my mom and sister coming.

Skills USA Part Two: The Competition

Tuesday, we had breakfast at 8 a.m., where we were given a written test about basic job skills and Skills USA as an organization.  Then I had quite a bit of a break before the meeting for my competition at noon.  They gave us information about what to expect and let us ask questions.  Then we took a written test about computer programming.  

After my meeting, I wandered around the "Techspo", eventually meeting up with the other student from SUU.  We wandered a bit more, waiting for our ride, and we got to see a National Guard Bike Trick show.  I'll upload a video or two at some point.  For some reason I can't get them to upload directly.

When our advisor arrived, we went to dinner.  The Utah Skills USA director recommended Jack Stack.  We found it to taste good, but to be somewhat overpriced for what it was.

Carrot Cake--it was very yummy

At orientation, they gave us 5 Utah pins to use for trading.  I collect pins, but I didn't really care about trying to get them from every state.  My main goal was the SC state pin, but I also got Texas, with which I was rather pleased for reasons some of you might know.  *wink*

  

Wednesday was my actual competition.  I was a little disappointed with my performance, but it was my first national competition.  I tried not to over-think it, but I ended up getting too worked up, anyway.  I tried to do a GUI (graphical user interface) and when I couldn't I just turned it in because I was like shaking.  Additionally, our judges never showed up, so we had make-shift judges.  The proctor mentioned something about them maybe not being able to stay the full time.  Then the judges started coming around to each person, so I felt rushed.  Anyway, I know I could have done much better, but hey, if I ever did another competition like this, I know I would do better, so I must have learned something, right?

Just a cool building downtown Kansas City

That night was the opening ceremony.  It was much crazier than I expected.  They had loud music, crazy lights, and all the states provided glow sticks and such for the participants.  I was expecting something more ceremonious, I guess.  The keynote speaker was the guy who started Ocearch.  They catch and tag great white sharks for tracking and scientific research.  Kinda crazy.