Utah trip: Hong Family Reuinion

In July the Hong family was able to get together. 

I can't believe is has been 8 years since we had seen each other. 

We all grew up together and would get together for Sunday dinner. Now that we are all grown up and living in different parts of the country I wish we could get together more often.

The grand and great grand kids. (-Nathan, wish you could have been here)

How cute are these two!

Dad, you make me laugh

We were able to get together at my parents house before everybody left. Good times.

Now, these two girls are the cutest, sweetest, most darling girls ever! 

Ava, thanks for playing barbies with me. It was fun to pull them out and be a girl again.

Anna, you are the cutest thing in the entire world!

Boyd and I play this game when we see kids. I always turn to him and ask "will our kids be that cute?" With any luck, our kids will be as adorable as Ava and Anna. Seriously so cute!

 

It was great to see everybody. Wish we could do this more often.

Utah Trip: SKYDIVING!

Happy 50th birthday mom! 

If I could describe skydiving in one word it would be: FANTASTIC!

(well, I apparently said it over and over again in my video) 

Skydiving was so so so much fun

I would absolutely do it again in a heartbeat

 

Like my attractive helmet? 

And the attractive personality to go along with it?

What a great way to celebrate your 50th! 

My mom rocks. 

Glad I could be a part of your birthday before I left Utah. 

 Thanks to George for keeping me alive.

Mad props to my photographer who took this awesome shot!

Was it scary? 

The only time it is scary is when they dangle you out of the plane right before you actually jump.
They practically tease you, while leaning forward, and you think "WOAH, what am I doing?" 

Then you just, you know, fall out! 

(while screaming your head off, haha) 

 What does it feel like? 

You never get that gut wrenching feeling. 

It feels like you are sticking your face out of the window on the freeway. 

Seriously, wind in your face! (and smushy eyes because of the goggles) 

My favorite comment: Boyd's brother Dave saw this picture and his first response was "why is there a dude strapped to her back?" Well Dave, not all of us are crazy like you and go solo on our first jump.

Megan warned me that you drool. 

I tried to lick it back but there was no stoppin that drool from coming out. 

Check out my arms. Windy. I told you. 

Like as windy as those quick dryers in the bathroom that blow your skin around.

60 seconds of free fall. 

 Then you pull the chute. 

 I felt a little adventurous, and I wish the camera guy had gotten a picture, but 

We totally did 360's in the air. 

Like, pulled the chute on one side so that your body is

 horizontal with the ground and your are flung around in a circle. 

Wicked awesome. 

Then we landed!

The end. 

Utah Trip: Point of the Mountain PARAGLIDING

I remember driving down to Provo from my parents when I was little, seeing those teeny tiny people up in the sky, thinking "I want to do that someday"

I did it!

Bucket List: Paragliding- Check! 

My mom's flight is the first half and mine starts at 1:50

What does it feel like?
Like you are sitting in a floating chair at the mercy of the wind.
It feels like that carnival ride when you are sitting in the swings and going around in a circle, only you don't go in a circle.

 

 

Nice helmet mom. :) 

So you see the picture of my mom taking off? Her feet aren't touching the ground. Ha, in fact the guy that is attached to her doesn't even have his feet on the ground.

I totally had bruises on my ribs from taking off and lading. You're supposed take 2 steps forward and 1 step back. While I was taking off the guy took the 2 steps forward but he ended up going 5 steps back, pulling my harness and bruising my ribs. Awesome.

So. . . . 
I totally got motion sick while I was paragliding. You can tell that I was sick because the guy in the video was trying to talk to me and I'm holding back my dinner in my mouth. I should have just let it all out because that would have been pretty funny, but for decency sake, I held it.
The reason why I got sick was because I was trying to fix this dude's go pro camera. It ran out of batteries and I was looking down while he was circling the launch pad over and over again. Blah.
When I did get a chance to take over the controls, my motion sickness went away immediately. I'm pretty sure I was a much better drive then the "experienced paraglider" I was with. 

My lily dog stayed right by my side as I crashed on the couch.

 She is such a parrot. She likes to sit on your shoulders and share you pillow.

Would I do it again? 

Probably not but it was worth the experience of checking it off my bucket list. 

Utah Trip: Road Trip - Viva Las Vegas

My Dad's sister, Goo Goo (aunt) Joy came into town for our Hong family reunion. (pictures to come later). So we took a road trip down to Las Vegas and stayed at my parent's home in St. George.  

At the Bellagio 

Can I just say I want this bowl! 

 It's Gorgeous 

The whole point of the trip was to come down to see Mystere. It was absolutely amazing. Word cannot express how awesome this show is. On a side note, watching it made me feel very out of shape. Those acrobats are mind blowing. 

On the way back Lily decided to be funny and ride on my shoulders. 

 Then she wanted to ride on my suitcase 

 She is so funny. 

 I'm pretty much obsessed with her. She is just so dang cute!

 It was a short but fun trip. 

Utah Trip: Sister Sister

I'm glad I got to spend lots of time with my sister. It's always fun to have someone to do things with, someone to talk to, and someone to share stories with. She is going to have a little girl come October, I know life will never be the same so it was fun to have some girl time before life changes. 

Right before we took this picture we were petting a skunk! A real, live, baby, skunk. Some kids had it on temple square and they let us see it for a bit. How fun. 

Utah Trip: USA Soccer

 Last fall U.S. Men's soccer came to Columbus Ohio. Boyd called it a "once in a lifetime" opportunity. We made the two hour trip down just to see the game. Fast forward to this past May. U.S. Men vs Belgium took place in Cleveland at the Browns Stadium! What! Our once in a lifetime turned into twice in one year. Fast forward to our trip out to Utah. U.S. Men vs Honduras. Our third time seeing them play in person in less then 1 year. 

This time it really was once in a lifetime experience. Boyd scored front row tickets. It was quite fantastic!