We are still alive...

Sorry it has been so long since our last post. Things have been absolutely crazy around here! I start teaching on Wednesday and still have a million things left to do. I never realized actually how much stuff teachers had to do before school started. I am a total To-Do list person, and I feel like lately for every one thing I cross off my list I end up adding 3 more things. It never seems to end. So please keep me in your prayers because I definitely need them!

I feel bad because I never put any pictures up from our trip to California, so here are some of the highlights....


Blake, My dad, Michael, and Travis had a blast at the ESPYS (while I was stuck in Utah at a boring conference)

The also went to the MLB All Star game. Spoiled boys :)

My mom, sister, niece and I got our nails done.

We also took Brielle to the Disney store where she got some sweet sunglasses, sandals, lunch pale, and princess toys.

Dinner at Tequila Jack's in Long Beach.

They love Aunt Courtney!

We love them!

Brielle LOVED petting the sharks at the Aquarium of the Pacific! She kept reaching in so deep that her whole head was soaked ha

This is so Smalls and Bun :)

<3


At the airport waiting for Chad.


Yay for Chad coming home from his mission! We are excited for him to come back up to Provo with us!


Dad's Birthday!!!

All the Donaldson Girls

We went to the beach one of the days! It was such nice weather!

We did a ton of other fun things that I didn't get pictures of :( Blake's family has a lot of really good photographers so sometimes I just let them do the picture taking. It was a very wonderful trip!

Books, Books, Books

Most of you know that I am going to teach second grade in the Fall (first day of school is in a little over a month). I am so excited to start teaching, but as a first year teacher there are so many things to prepare for and buy. This week I all of a sudden felt this sudden urgency to start building my classroom library collection! I think the most important thing for a classroom is a personal library. It's nice because the school has a great library and I can also get books from the city libraries, however, there is nothing like a classroom with plenty of books for students to choose from at will. I feel like by having my own personal library collection it shows my students how important reading and books are to me. So I went to D.I. several times this week and have been able to get some fantastic books for dirt cheap! The books I bought range from .25 to 2.00. I sure was able to stock up! I got 120 books for about $50.00! It has gotten me so excited about teaching! If any of you bloggers out there (or your parents, friends, family, etc.) happen to go through your garage and find any boxes with old children's books you don't need I can help take them off your hands!

P.S. Thanks Blake for letting me splurge on the books :)

The Narrows

Last week we hiked The Narrows down in Zion. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life! I had no idea what was ahead of me when we started that hike Wednesday morning, but despite the rough terrain I was able to finish! Blake was such a trooper sticking by my side the whole time. It really was a beautiful hike and the weather was perfect! It was nice spending time with family and friends too. Thanks for inviting us Sara and Stanford! Stanford put pictures up on his blog.

Congratulations Ash!

So this past week I went home to California for my best friend Ashley's graduation from FIDM. I hated leaving Blake for so long, but I was so glad that I got to be there to see Ash graduate. Ash is the most amazing friend anybody could ask for! She is so thoughtful, giving, and kind. I am so lucky to have such an amazing best friend. Ash and I have been friends since we were in sixth grade and I know that we will be great friends for many years to come. Even after we have been out of high school for four years we still talk on the phone every single day :) I love you Ash! Congrats!


The graduation was at the Staples Center. It was a packed house in there!

FIDM is the Fashion Institute in Los Angeles.

It was the coolest graduation I have ever been to. I have never seen so many jewels, feathers, paint, pink, and belts in one place (you can see some of it in the picture). Since it's the fashion institute girls really dressed up their gowns and caps. It kept the ceremony very entertaining because we were looking at all the different gown and cap designs the whole time. Ash kept it classy by sticking with the traditional cap and gown (which I liked the best).

Since the stage was kind of far away I had to get a picture of her crossing the stage on the big screen.

The Sourapas Family. Love them!!!


Nana and Papa (basically my second grandparents)


After graduation we went to this really nice steak house called Derby in Arcadia. It was so yummy!

Congrats Ash! I'm so glad I got to be there for you!

Meet Joe

So I know I have mentioned a little bit about our new friend, but I thought I would let you all see him for yourself. He just showed up at our door one night. I fell in love right away (I am a die hard cat lover), but Blake was a little harder to convince (He was the opposite of a cat lover). At first we would just give him food and water outside. However, he now has won the heart of the person who matters (Blake) and now gets to come hangout with us inside. Blake is the one who named him. He has three white paws and one black, so Blake called him Shoeless Joe.

He loves cheese. He will sit and beg at the fridge until we give him cheese.


He just loves to come up and cuddle on our laps.






He LOVES Blake.

We don't know what to think about the cat. Blake sometimes thinks he may have another home and is just mooching off all the neighbors, but we aren't sure because he is always so starving and thirsty when he comes. We don't know how long he will stick around, but we sure have fallen in love with this cat!

Birthday Festivities and the Donaldson Family Reunion

I would have loved to give Blake his own birthday post but it overlapped so much with the family reunion that it was too difficult to separate, so everyone please forgive the massive post.

We started the weekend off by heading up to Heber Friday afternoon. We stayed at a really nice camp called Heber Valley Camp. The camp is sponsored by the church and ran by elderly missionary couples. If our Girls Camps were as nice as this one I bet there would've been a lot more happy campers. ha. Each family got their own cabin with 8 bunk beds in them (minus mattress' for the bunks).

Of course within minutes of arriving Blake was already getting attacked with large Nerf guns by all the children.

We learned how to play Ladder Ball, which could be a good addition to our yard games collection.




There were several challenge courses around the camp. This challenge course consisted of climbing a large pole, walking across a plank, and then riding a zip line to the bottom. It didn't seem too scary from the bottom, but seemed a lot higher once you were at the top.

Courtney was the brave one and went first.









Courtney and Blake are the funniest people I know. They both keep me laughing all the time.

That night we had a camp fire at the amphitheater with singing, skits, and stories.







At midnight my Dad and Courtney sang to Blake their famous "Today is your birthday Shout Hooray!" They synchronized special moves and everything for the song.

My parents then gave him his gifts so that he could use them that night. They got him sleeping bags and a tent. We didn't use the tent but we did use the sleeping bags.

Here is Blake in his new sleeping bag (as you can tell we didn't tough it out with our bedding arrangements. The air mattress was a good idea until the middle of the night when Blake woke me up because his side of the mattress was deflated to the cement. Poor Blake had a horrible nights sleep that night).



Happy Birthday Boy!


We had a cake made at Costco so that we could celebrate with everybody at the reunion that afternoon.

My sister mastered hula hooping while on the balance board.

Blake was able to do it a little bit too!

We got to go canoeing on a small lake on the camp grounds. It was a gorgeous day!



Blake's presents. He was a spoiled boy!

Tasha, Brian, Tanner, Brayden, and Chase sent Blake a package in the mail with cards and the movie Blind Side. He talked to them on the phone while he opened the package. He (and me too) LOVE that movie! It is a favorite of ours!

We went to Texas Road House for dinner. SO GOOD!


Texas Road House is so fun because on people's birthdays they make them sit on a saddle while the restaurant yells "YEEEHAWWW!" Blake was a good trooper about it!





Blake's Mom, Dad, and Paige sent him such a nice package! They sure loaded him up good :) Here he is opening the Wii remote control.

Here he is with his new drill and drill bits (from his parents and Paige), which he was sooo excited about! He kept playing with it the next day!

That night Blake even got a birthday visit from his new favorite furry friend :) (That's a joke. This cat keeps coming to our house every night and begging to come in. Blake isn't a cat person and doesn't understand my sympathy for the cat).

I usually love making people's favorite birthday cakes, but since we were gone most of the day I ordered an ice cream cake from Coldstone instead. It was chocolate cake with banana ice cream and Oreos on the outside. So yummy!

I hope you had a great birthday Blake!