Summer Summary

Summer has been, to say the least, hectic. But that is not to say it has been uneventful. In order to catch you up from the last time I blogged, I will have to will my mind back 3 months to reflect on the past days of summer. So bare with me, and we shall get through all the adventures.

First, I will discuss the significance of the picture above us now. To start, I have to ability to become tan, but not generally the opportunity I was granted this summer. I currently work as a camp counselor for a day camp located at a lakeside spa and resort in the hills of lake travis. Most of the activities take place in doors but each day we spend at least an hour and a half outdoors at the pool and this is where I acquire my color. My tanness still often surprises me. It is as if my body has completely changed skin tones in a matter of weeks.

Life at camp: It's sort of a mixture of joys and stresses. I give you the example above: This 5-year old decided a couple weeks ago to propose to my co-worker. When asked why he wanted to marry her, he replied, "because she is my friend," when asked about the wedding, he replied that the couple was to get married, "tomorrow underground." The world is much stranger and simpler from a child's point of view. That is part of the job I enjoy. I enjoy seeing the tiny 4 year old declare he will, "have to live alone without a wife" when he discovers that his self-proclaimed girlfriend wants to kiss him. I enjoy the drawings of Obama and Spongebob so carefully etched in crayon. I enjoy stomping around the pools of goo and pouring it all over childrens' heads in the pouring rain. I enjoy being able to decide the answer to all sorts of ridiculous questions, such as "This stapler doesn't have staples in it. Can I pretend to staple my arm?"

On the flipside, being with children all day requires 110 percent of my daily energy. Sometimes just watching them is exhausting. Coincidentally, when I get home in the afternoon, I feel mostly dead.

BUT that is not to say that on the weekends we don't have fun!
In JUNE I had the distinct pleasure of attending the beautiful wedding of my dear friends Jonathan and Dione. Above is a snapshot of Eve, Emily and myself boogying on down to delightful dance tunes. I have not been to many weddings yet in my lifetime, but I can say for sure this one was the most fun. When one has such creative friends that challenge wedding guests to retrieve the LED light at the bottom of a 3-foot cylinder of blue water and a wedding cake shaped like a giant rubik's cube, one just must enjoy it.

And of course, it makes it all better when wedding guests jump in the hotel pool full clothed at the end and drive home sopping wet :)

Oh, right. There is that jumping out of a plane thing. In my opinion, it went pretty well. Once I was able to breathe better (after being force fed to much air in freefall due to my enormously open mouth), I quite enjoyed the sensation of floating high above the world. It made it a bit strange that there was an obnoxious lady strapped to my back, but hey, beggars can't be choosers, right? I definitely think I would do it again should I decide I had the luxury to spend large amounts of money of 5 minutes of thrill, but it was DEFINITELY worth it at least the one time.

Yes, also we got tattoos. Tattoos that delete themselves with time. They are the best kind of tattoos. These tattoos were acquired at a trip to Schlitterbahn water park, which happens to be the largest water park in the world. It also happens to have giant, multi-colored floating crocodiles. Crocodiles of which I want for my own and I am working on making this a reality.

Because I am living in Austin for the summer, I am sorely missing these wonderful people. We were able to enjoy each other's company briefly a couple weeks ago. To celebrate we decided to go gorge ourselves on some bbq, and gorge we did!
And, of course the reason we were visiting in the first place was to attend the wedding of Mr and Mrs. Joey and Amy Deavours! Hooray for weddings this summer. This JULY wedding took place in Santa Cruz and was beautifully done. I also got to see, and have Mr. Peterson meet, a few of my much-missed classmates (pictured above). Here is a picture of our group and the lovely bride and groom:

So, I know this was brief, but there will most likely be more to come. Right this moment I am sitting in a hotel room in Reno at the 63rd Annual International Juggling Association Festival. So more pictures and stories are to come! Until then, I hope everyone is having a pleasant summer!

~Oooout!