My Life in Blog Form...: Last day in California...don't worry I'll be back in a week ;)

Santa Cruz Wharf-with the Boardwalk behind me

Yes that's right, I'm finally leaving! But like the title states; I'm returning once again. My dad and I fly out of Oakland tomorrow (I'll be looking for the temple as we take off) back home to Washington. I'll be spending the 4th of July weekend with family and catching up with some friends so I don't think we have any special plans (I'm kind of bummed that the 4th is on a Sunday this year). Then Monday morning I'm driving my little brother Geoffrey and myself down to Tacoma for EFY (Especially For Youth) session 2! I'm super excited! Loren is going to be a counselor along with his roommate/pal Kurt so I'm hoping that maybe, maybe, maybe I might possibly get one of them as a counselor (it's random selection). Along with that hope, I'm always hoping for a friendly, nice, and not socially awkward roommate (since I'm going by myself). Not that I'll complain if that doesn't happen, but it would sure make my last year at EFY a more enjoyable experience. This will in fact be my 5th and final year at EFY. I've been very blessed to be able to go all 5 years (it can be pricey!!) but I'm a sucker for EFY, if you have kids 14-18 you have to send them off to a session at least one time. The experience is incredible and such a great spiritual uplift, it really truly is. So anyways after EFY I fly back to California and will be here for a another couple weeks until we head off to Utah for Family reunions...enough about that though.

So Lately?... Well I should basically say nothing much has changed since I've been here in the bay area...a quick update of events: I've gone to church at 3 different wards, I've gotten sunburnt multiple times (my poor nose especially), I've gotten much better at beach volleyball but still cannot skim board or at least skim board without EATING SAND HARDCORE!, I've been enjoying my own personal soundtrack of this 2010 summer by listening to mix that my cousin burned for me (thanks taylor!), I enjoyed my annual trip to the Santa Cruz boardwalk riding rides and ate a chocolate caramel candy apple that I've been craving since our last visit, I saw the midnight showing of the 3rd part of the Twilight Saga: Eclipse-this was a last minute thing I SWEAR! (but I still had fun) besides the fact that I got home at 2:45 that night-or should I say MORNING, I've eaten dinner on the Santa Cruz wharf, At my Uncle's house-I've cleaned table saw's/hauled plywood/scratched grout/cleaned tile/done a ton of laundry/watched Nacho Libre and baked a Cherry Chip birthday cake-YUMMO! and last but certainly not least; I received my first (and hopefully last) towing fee at a whopping $312 yes....it's true :(

I'll end my blog entry with this VERY VERY VERY unfortunate tale.
So as I stated earlier, I've been playing a lot of beach volleyball lately. My cousin Zack is my age and we hang out with his friends and play quite often. So we play at the beach and next to it lies a road which now I know is called Beach Drive. Along this road are two sidewalks one (each side and one) of them you cannot park on at all. The other you can but only in the green painted zones. Along this same side however are beach houses that have driveways. Well my cousin Zack and even his parents have parked in this one particular driveway because the woman that owns the house is apparently never home (it's her vacation spot). So one day when I have a few hours with nothing going on I decided it'd be fun to take a walk on the beach for a while. So I drove down to this driveway (yes Zack assured me I could park there because he always does and nothing's ever happened) and I parked my car there. I decided since I'd be in sand the whole time that I'd leave my shoes in the car. So I locked it, and started walking down the beach. Basically I was gone for about 4 hours, walking, laying out, and wading in the frigid water. But I wasn't anywhere near the volleyball courts/my car. Eventually I walked back to where I thought I had parked and I saw that my bug wasn't in the driveway. Before freaking out, I thought oh, wrong house I guess and I walked down about half a block to a house that was the same color (an ugly faded peach might I add BLEH) but that driveway was empty too and it didn't look familiar at all. So yes, I realized that my car was gone. And I felt my heart sink, obviously I thought it was stolen. I was under the impression that if your car was towed that there would be some sort of note or flyer left out stating that your car was towed haha it sounds stupid but I figured towing company's could do that! But maybe it should be obvious enough that if you park illegally then your car will be towed, ANYWAYS... So I called Zack and asked him if his car had ever been moved or taken because mine was gone (I couldn't believe how calm I sounded on the phone...I wanted to cry I was terrified-mainly because I thought "oh man, dad's going to have a Kaniption when he hears about this". He told me to call 911 and report the car being stolen or possibly towed. So after calling my dad and letting him know I did just that. The officer asked me a few questions (I sounded like a total idiot on the phone might I add-I couldn't believe this was happening to me! (oh and I was barefoot too since I left my shoes in the car GOOD ONE KENZ!). The officer asked me what street I was on and I all I could tell him was that I was right next to Rio Del Mar beach and he said he needed the street name so I walked to the neighbors house and before I could even ask them they said "Oh are you the girl with the red bug?"....and so these neighbors told me that the woman that lived at the ugly peach house did in fact return and wanted my car out of her driveway. So they looked for me and asked kids around the volleyball courts if they owned a red bug and if I would've been right there I would've been able to move it, no ticket, nothing (apparently the lady is merciful to an extent). So after an hour or so she called the police-who came by and checked to get info about the car and filled out a report etc. and then from there she called the tow company. So the tow itself was around $200 and because a cop was involved the price went up so therefor the final price was $312. My dad covered it and now I've been working it off for him. So I learned my lesson, don't park illegally EVER...Or at least, be close to your car if parking illegally :)

My cousins Zack, Josh and Riggs and me in the middle hanging out at the beach in Aptos