As for my next installment of "Stories from the Westside", time to highlight my dad. My Pops is a great man, who had, as most of us know, an interesting childhood. Many stories are told of my dad from when he was younger, and all of them are the most hilarious stories I have ever heard! A little bit about my dad, we as a family like to call him Ranger Ricky, he is quite the mountain man. So most of his stories are from when he was hiking, camping, or exploring the mountains. When he was younger, my grandma would just drop my dad and his friends off at one side of the mountain, he'd leave for about a week, and then mysteriously pop up back at home. He enjoyed bonding with nature, and my grandma enjoyed a bit more peaceful home...we always joke about that.
But now onto a classic Ranger Ricky story. One week, my dad and his friend Chris went up through the mountains, as usual. They were hiking through the mountains when Chris happened upon a purse with some of it's contents spilled out. Said contents included a couple of tampons, a diamond ring, a roll of mini camera negatives, and some other personal items. Now, being the curious lads they were, they started checking out these contents. Chris starts looking at the negatives to find that....uh.....well let's just say they were some peculiar pictures. Then my dad starts to examine the diamond ring. This then leaves to tampon.... Oh boy, Chris just couldn't contain his curiosity from examining the tampon. So he starts to crack one open when he notices something green and familiar inside the applicator.... Shock and amazed, he realizes that inside the tampon, there was a total of 150 dollars inside. *I wish my tampons would come with money, us girls deserve something in return, am I right ladies?* That's right, whoever the owner was, used her tampon as a wallet....ha ha Unbelievable! Personally, I don't think it's such a good idea. Chris then freaks out, thinking the money is free-gain. But my dad, as honest as he is, convinced Chris to turn it into the cops. So they did, and it had a 30 day wait on the claim. So they waited, but unfortunately, it was gone. Many rumors have evolved as to where the money went, but we will never know for sure what happened to the tampon money.........
Alright, I am officially tickled out, out of breath, run ragged, messy, stuffed, and plain ol' exausted... Must mean the Heybornes were in town. Love this family to death! You've got my sis Trish, who is now preg, but great to talk to and reminisce and play intense games with. Then there's Kirby my brother in-law who's a great guy, and hilarious. He's also got great taste in music and a good sense of humor! Lastly my favorites of all (sorry trish and kirb, they win by a landslide), my niece and nephew, Sadie and Max (The Wolverine Ninja). These two are SO funny. I need a whole other post just to tell you about them. but they really are great kids. I love hangin with them. But they all know how to have a good time, and to have a good laugh. Too bad they have to live down in California. I miss them all the time! But when they do come down, you know it's going to be a blast! This time, we had a packed schedule.
Sunday: The Day of Rest
On Sunday, we went to church. Kirby and Trisha just flirted with each other throughout the meeting. Then you have Max playing "quietly" with his new action figures. He was shooting everyone who went up to the pulpit, and me...Then Sadie and I were playing with her new Littlest Pet Shop toys. It's almost her birthday, so when she took out her brochure of all the littlest pet shop toys, she pointed out to me what she didn't have... She didn't have that many. "Don't have, don't have.......Do have, don't have." And when she got to a new row, she would take a huge breath of air. Then when we got home, Max and I started to draw. He taught me how to draw Doc Oc, and I taught him how to draw a Ninja Turtle. Then after that as usual, we played some intense card games...I won.
Max's Doc Oc and Ninja Turtle
Monday: At Snowbird and Then Some
On Monday we went down to Snowbird. There, we did rock climbing, the bungee tramp, alpine slides, zipline, and rode the tram to the top of the mountain. The kids loved it there. It was a great day. Max said, it couldn't be any more perfect, unless he got a pet wolf there with him. Sorry Max, I don't think that will happen. It was fantastic weather. On the bungee tramp, Sadie and Max tried to do their first flips. Sadie, who was more courageous then Max at first got half way, but didn't get the concept of kicking your legs over...she was sooo close though. When Max finally tried to do his flip, i noticed he got a little stuck on his head. But, the trooper that kid is, he bounced on his head till he kicked his legs all the way and did his first flip. GOOD JOB MAX!! Then you have the kirbster...man alive, he worked towards a triple flip. But when he first landed it, his lady was no where around to impress... so of course he tried to do it again later but ruin his neck.....atta boy kirby! The alpine slides were a blast, Max beat me, but when i went down with sadie, man that speed demon had it pedal to the metal all the way down! After we got back home, it was time to cool off some how. What better than to run in the sprinklers. Mom and Dad said it was okay to go in clothing, but i don't think they realized how wet the kids wanted to get. After that we enjoyed a firework show, put on by myself of course..Poor little sadie thought it would be okay to touch the black stuff on her sparkler after it was done....Don't do that at home kids! Then it was off to bed.
Kirbster and I ridin the bull. However, i was on the bull longer, Trish just thought she was getting picture of me and started it at the end of my go.......
Tuesday: Enjoying the Wildlife
Well, today was a jam-packed day filled with awesomeness...quote from Max. We started off by goin to Cabellas to look at their animal displays. The kids thought it was awesome. But the tricky part came when Sadie asked if the animals were just statues. Funny Kirby looks to me to explain. I told him to just come out with the truth.
"well, you see honey, they aren't quite statues...they are real, but dead, so they aren't alive....you see they kill them and then kinda cut on the bottom and stuff them up to make them look alive...do you see what i am saying sadie lady?"
Very nicely put Kirby. It didn't seem to bother her much though, and max, the wise one already knew. After a fun walk through cabella's and after my ostrich sandwich (it was delicious!), we went camping! We went up to Tanner's Flats up in the canyon. We got a great little site right next to the water. The video is funny cuz max is explaing about the loudness of the water. But we went on very many adventures, saw some waterfalls, caught some fish, sang some songs. ("Amster-Amster...DAM-DAM-DAM") It was a blast! Some side notes, i found what appeared to be a piece of an elk's spine in the creek, sadie caught a deer that chased me off, and max was scared for his life that our tent would fall into the river while we were sleeping, which was no where near our tent. But the next day, the Heybornes left, and I can't wait to go see them in their habitat!
Max here is telling you about the river and how loud it is.
Well, what can I say, Mac was a great fish. Now he's swimming around in a better place, that big aquarium in the sky. You will be missed Mac, you will be missed. Now memories of my childhood keep coming up.... the days of the past goldfish. Hope Cheese isn't too broken up about this.
Alright everybody, I'd like for you to meet Mac. He is a goldfish, and I adopted him just the other day. Brings me back to the days when I was younger and went through like 80 goldfish... Those were the days! Mac is cool though. He has a brother (we like to think of them as brothers) named Cheese. But my friend Ashley is caring for Cheese so they are going through a sort of trial seperation. Now, how all of this business came about, it started one day when my friends and I were very bored. Ashley had concocted this idea of going out to buy those 10 cent fish and doorbell ditch them on our friends porches. But of course, we followed through with this idea and it was a huge success. We gave a friend to Emily Bateman, Anna Campbell, and Alec Crestani. So hopefully they become good friends. We also left a note with the fish making it seem like they were orphans and stuff like that. We are genius, I know. But as for Mac, he is having the time of his little fishy life.
A little bit about Mac:
1. He poops a lot.
2. He is scared of heights.
3. He likes to talk to the fish printed on the label of his food container.
4. He snores throughout the night, even though he doesn't sleep.
5. He freaks out a lot. 6. He likes to look at himself through the mirror I gave him.
8. He misses his brother.
Mac looking at his own reflection. Mac talking to the fish printed on the label.
Mac is getting a little sleepy. Just keep swimmin Mac, just keep swimmin!
Mac calling for his brother Cheese. "Where are ya' Cheese?"
Well, a real reality check happened to me last night. I was at my friend Alec's house along with Preston and Tiffany. We were just talking after a full, fun and eventful night. The subject of our senior trip came up and we started talking about when to do it. Then Alec makes the comment, "Well, we need to do it at like the first of the summer vacation." Then it hit Tiffany and me like a ton of bricks, he'll be goin on his mission in about a year from now or even in less time than that!!! It's crazy to think how old we are getting, and to think that in just a year, most of our guy friends will be off on their missions! What am I goin to do? We love to hang out with the guys. We go to concerts, play games, talk, see movies.... we do lots of stuff. They are the greatest kids ever, and i have been lucky to be friends with them! They are a bunch a goof-balls, and tricksters. I hope that like my sister, that I will be able to stay in contact with them!
Oh my, batman is finally almost here! A long awaited production, and it's only just a week away! The Dark Knight....How intense does the name get? I literally get shivers up my spine when I see a commercial. A while back, I was talking to a good buddy of mine, Alex Snyder, and I was telling him how I wanted to go to the midnight premiere of it, cause it's BATMAN!! ha ha and we talked about getting tickets and whatnot, but then I went on a trip. When I get back, Alex left me a message on facebook saying somethin like, hey mandi, did you still want to go to the premiere? Cause I went to go buy tickets and remembered us talking about it and bought you a ticket, I thought that you would definately use it. Alex, you are the bomb! of course I would use the ticket. So we all have been anxiously awaiting this movie. My brother in-law the other night came upstairs and said that he watched a thing on it which said that the movie reaches all expectations, and exceeds them. Could I get any more anxious!!! ha ha I know that Alex has been just as excited. He went and bought pajamas, I'm not sure what i want to wear. Please Help!
Which one of these should i get, or should i get a simple T-shirt? oh man...I am just too excited! lol, me and Alex started making jokes about the movie about how Batman is the new Chuck Norris. "They say that Batman's tears can cure cancer, too bad Batman never cries." ha ha well, i will definately post again when I see it, here's to batman...BATMAN!
Alright, so from the looks of it, Heath Ledger did a spectacular job! The new age Joker, with a twist. Can't wait to take in his performance.
Love how they introduce two-face! Now I'm even more excited for the next one to come out!!!! hopefully we keep Christian Bale for it!
Ranger Ricky to the right.
Max's Doc Oc and Ninja Turtle
