"The Little Cassie that Could"

As some of you know, I am taking a bowling class right now. I am a terrible bowler so my goal for the class was to bowl over 100 points in a game (the highest score possible is 300 so this goal is pretty pathetic but oh well). After three weeks of this class I didn't seem to be showing any improvement other than gaining consistency in my poor skills.......until this Thursday! We learned several different ways to "release" the ball. I always have bowled straight but we learned three different ways to bowl a curve ball. The first one I tried just didn't work for me. I was ready to just give up and go back to my straight bowling but I decided to try one more of the new ways. Good thing I did too because me and that method are now best friends! I BOWLED 127 POINTS!!! And the next game I bowled 104! Twice in one day......that is a true sign of improvement! Oh happy day!

Were they bored or inspired?

Once upon a time I was in my apartment at about 5:30 pm putting away groceries. All of the sudden there was a knock upon my door. With one hand holding my instant potatoes I opened the door to find two young men standing there. By my estimations, one was 12 and the other was 16. The older one handed me a long-stemmed red rose and told me that it was for me. I quickly thanked them but asked if there was a motive behind their strange actions. They told me that they thought that I needed a rose today. What could I say to that?! So I thanked them again and closed the door. I think that is one of the most random things that I have ever experienced in my life! I won't complain though :)

Goblins...no Gobblers!

This is me.....or the closest picture that I have of my adventure this morning. I went for a jog around 9:30 and when I was almost home I ran into some loose turkeys. I moved to the other side of the street because I didn't want to scare them farther away from their home. I soon learned that these turkeys were not timid. As I ran past them they started chasing after me....yes turkeys were chasing me!! I have had dogs do that but never turkeys. And they were fast and determined. After running a block and they were still following me I started to wonder what I would do if they followed me all the way home. Luckily they soon gave up and I made it home without any new pets. What an adventure!

The other morning while Wendi and I were weeding the garden I asked her for ideas of what I should do with my friends. I have so many friends in town, so much time on my hands, but I have nothing to do with them. It is quite frustrating! So one of Wendi's suggestions was to make cookies. That same night we had a cookie-making party at my house and played card games. Race had never played spoons before! How do you grow up in Round Valley and never play spoons?! It was quite entertaining for the rest of us to watch him learn but I fear that he has developed a hatred for the game :) So we had to change games part way through. What a fun, sugar-filled night!

The best part about making your own cookies is that you get to decide how many much of the dough actually ends up in cookie form. Needless to say, we thoroughly enjoyed the dough :)

Since we made no-bake cookies, it didn't take long so we ended up playing games for a long time.

You can tell that we are still playing spoons in this picture because the table cloth is still on the table. After a while Race decided that he didn't want the table cloth there anymore and it wasn't too long after that that we decided to change the game for Race's sake :)

And thank you to Sydney and Katie for taking all the pictures for me!

Ten Pin Cassie!

As the summer is coming to a close I have become very bored and have run out of things to do. Normally this is a bad thing but in my case it may not be. It has given me the motivation to actually have a social life. I am so blessed to have so many great friends at home this summer so there are plenty of people to hang with. One of my most recent social adventures involved Tallon, Race, Claire, me, Show Low, Pizza Hut, bowling, and ice cream. Best night of the summer! I haven't laughed that hard since I left Provo. On the way home Tallon and Race sat in the back seat singing to The Format at the top of their lungs. Luckily for Claire and I, both of them have absolutely amazing voices so we were in heaven! Good times :)

This is the most normal picture that Claire and I were able to capture of these fellas.....I know, it is so impressive, right?!

We all love our dear Race :)

Try getting dear Tallon to smile!

This was Race's move that he dubbed "the proposal". It started out a little rough but actually ended up winning two out of the three games we played. His knee is a little sore now though :)

And this is the closest thing we got to a group picture of us. It was not planned but I think that it turned out to be a pretty great picture!

Fourth of July- My first rodeo EVER!

The Fourth of July is kind of a big deal where I am from, some people like it even better than Christmas! None of my family came home this year so it was kind of a quiet Independence Day but we still had fun with the family that lives in town. I was a slacker and didn't get pictures of everything but the few that I got I will talk about.

Saturday morning Wendi, Clif, and I were up early to run the annual fun run at the hospital. All three of us ran the 5k. It was killer because the course went up and over graveyard hill- the biggest steepest hill in town- and it was pretty hot. But we all survived and even won medals. There weren't tons of people to compete with so it wasn't too hard for Wendi and I to get second place medals for our age divisions. Clif did get first in his and was the winner of the whole race. Good job all of us!

I have never been to a rodeo before and I grew up with a Dad who used to rope in rodeos all the time. So I decided that it was high time that I experience one. I was only able to talk my Dad into taking me because my brother-in-law, Clif, was participating in a few events. Thanks Clif!

These first two pictures are of Clif in the Pony Express:

Clif did great considering he never practiced but barely lost to his friend Jake Hamblin.
These next two pictures are of Clif in the Keg Race, which is kind of like musical chairs:

Clif got out in the third round but still had lots of fun.

This is a picture of Hunter Hamblin doing the pickup race. No Hunter is not a family member but I thought the picture was pretty cool!

I had a blast at the rodeo and we didn't even stay for very long! I enjoyed having Dad right next to me to explain everything and answer all my questions. I enjoyed watching but, like all sports, it made it so much more interesting and entertaining to have someone I know competing. Thanks Clif! and thanks Dad for taking me!

So it has been a while since I wrote so I will do my best to fill everyone in on the recent happenings in my life. Here goes....

Memorial day was great because it was the first time that I actually celebrated it the right way. Mom, Dad, and I went to St. Johns to go visit my grandparents' graves. My Grandpa Heap fought in World War II so we wanted to remember him and his wife and all they sacrificed for our freedom. It took us a while to find their graves and in the process of finding them we ran across about 50 other relatives in the cemetery. I was amazed and really interested to look around as see all these names that I knew. One of the headstones had the names of my great-great grandparents that I had studied last semester in my family history class. It was really cool to see their graves so I just had to take a picture! (yes, I know that my shadow is in the picture too...oops)

After visiting the cemetery we went and visited the LeFevres for a while, shopped at the St. Johns Alco and then returned home. That evening we had a BBQ with all the family around and the weather was great. After dinner we sat down and talked about why we have Memorial Day and all talked about some of our ancestors who fought in American wars. What a good day!

It was the next day that we learned about the wild fire, dubbed the Wallow Fire, that was started over the holiday weekend. I thought that that was quite a bummer but surely it would be like all the other fires we get around here and would shortly be put out. Nope. It grew and grew until it had traveled over thirty miles in our direction. We had had problems with the smoke from the fire in our valley the entire time but it took about a week before we were evacuated from our homes. Scary! I actually left a day early because I went with my sister Holly and her girls to go to Utah. We had already planned the trip but decided to leave early because of all the fire problems. It was hard to evacuate myself and drive away from my home not knowing what would be there when I returned.

Utah was great though! It was a good break from the smoke and distracted us from the constant stress. It was great to see family again. All seven of the kids in my family were all together! That is rare so we had to take pictures, of course! Unfortunately I do not have a copy of them so I can post them. It also really enjoyed spending time with some of my old roommates. I miss those guys!
On Saturday morning Wendi and Karen ran the Utah Half-Marathon while Jake, Clif, Mel and I ran the 5k. It was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be!

Clif was the one who came up with the idea for all of us to run the 5k. He had never run a race before but has recently picked up running. Of course Jake and he were speed demons. hehe. Mel and I just went at our own speed and enjoyed the scenery. In honor of Clif's good idea I decided to post a special picture of him and his family :)

After our race, most of us drove down to Monticello for our cousin, Kelvin's, homecoming. It was great to see him and some of the extended family again and while we were there the evacuation on Round Valley was lifted. Most of us drove to St. Johns that night and stayed with family for a bit before returning home. We are now finally all home! What a June it has been so far!