GO BYU!

BYU takes Las Vegas by storm, and we're not just talking about the UNLV game. "Fully Invested" sighting were reportedly happening all day in Las Vegas, Nevada as students and alumni wandered the strip greeting each other with an exuberant "Go Cougars!" In the slow crawling line to the BYU/UNLV game, fans waved flags, hats, and giant foam fingers annoyingly in the faces of their rivals. Inside the stadium, not even the drunken Rebels could silence the high-speed version of the cougar fight song from sea of blue that made up about half of the stadium.

After defeating UNLV, we took our fully invested party to the top of the Stratosphere where we found many equally invested friends. Go Cougars!

Evolution of Amy

Ages: Brand new baby, 5, and 8.
Ages: 9, 11 and 14
ages: 18 ("Senior Picture"), 22, and 26.

Mom had sent these pictures of me to Grandma throughout the years, and then just recently sent them to me. I finally got around to scanning them in, so I thought I'd post a few.

I LOVE MY JOB!

Yes, I definitely love my job. This is living! We flew down to Vegas for the last Memory Trends trade show ever. Which also means my last stay in the Venetian for a very long time. Too bad. I was becoming quite accustomed to those plush Venetian robes, chocolate pillow mints, Valet service, and TVs in the bedroom, living room, AND bathroom.

Ok, this was my favorite part, so I had to take a pictures: a place to sit and get ready. It even had one of those magnifying mirrors. I loved it!

Show Reviews:
Mystere by Cirque Du Soleil
On Tuesday night we took our top accounts to see Mystere. It was fantastic, of course, but definitely not my favorite Cirque Du Soleil. I has a more traditional feel, as one acrobatic act follows another with little story or continuity. The clown was very good though, and involved the audience more than the other shows I have seen.

Ka by Cirque Du Soleil
On Wednesday night, the whole group went to see Ka, a brand new Cirque Du Soleil with a martial arts/fighting spin. It was phenomenal. The set was incredible and the stage rotated on all angles and eventually, entirely vertical with the artists fighting 150 feet in the air. Occasionally a dying actor would fall from the stage into the nothingness below. This show had the best baton twirling, most impressive shadow puppets, and cool speakers in each headrest.

La Reve
We saw La Reve last year. It's not a Cirque Du Soleil, but it's created by Dragone the same Director that did Mystere. It has a Cirque Du Soleil feel to me. It was probably my favorite. The theater is small and round so everyone has a good seat and in the center is a stage that drops down to be a pool half the time. The diving was incredible, the clowns were hilarious, and the topless dancer was totally unexpected. (We closed our eyes for a while as the men in our group giggled like little boys.) The good new is, I hear she puts clothes on for the earlier show.

Before the trade show started, Andrea, Melanie, and I hit the Prim Outlet Mall and found our "Best Friends" bracelets that we decided needed to be part of our work uniform.

Pine Creek and Kolob

Mike, Travis, and I headed down to Zion last weekend for an end of summer Hootenanny. After a full day of wakeboarding and a BYU Football game, we arrived in Zion Sunday morning at 2:00 am and then got in line at the backcountry permit office at 4:30. The following day was the most lethargic day of the entire summer. After church we spent a long time in the visitor center and then headed up to Zion lodge (anywhere that had air conditioning, really). There is a huge grassy area in front of the Lodge with a massive tree that casts a shadow over the entire thing. We passed the rest of our Sunday, sleeping in the shade and finding "Faces that aren't faces" in the cliffs. Finally Monday came and we dropped into Pine Creek canyon instantly missing the sun we had hated the day before. The water was pretty cold and we spent a lot of time swimming through the canyon. By the time we reached the final rappel, my muscles were exhausted from shivering.

This is me being cold and exhausted. The final rappel is a 100 ft. free rappel into what they call the cathedral.

Since Pine Creek is only a 4-5 hour canyon, we decided to go Climbing in Kolob on our way home. The wall that the boys selected is a 75 ft over hang. Travis lead-climbed it and then Mike went after. I also tried and made it about 25 feet up, stopping every few feet to rest my fore arms. It was a pretty cool wall, though.

Darby Caves

Two steps into the Darby Ice caves and it goes from scorching hot to freezing cold. Pretty soon we realized though, that it might not be cold enough. Mike, who has done the Darby Ice Caves before informed us that the pool of ice water in front of us was supposed to be our frozen path. Since Mike was the only one with an extra pair of shoes, he carried each of us through the water to where it was fully frozen on the other side. Once through, we continued our journey sliding down the slick ice trail, knocking each other over, and bouncing off of walls. After a short rappel down an ice wall we decided that we really didn't have enough time to do the entire cave. So Mike somehow scrambled back up the ice wall and Travis locked me into the rope at the bottom. "I'm ready!" I called to Scott and Mike above me and before I had any kind of footing, I was slammed against the wall and dragged up the slippery surface. Thanks guys.
We decided to enter the the cave that we would have exited from and just explore the many cavities. It was a blast, and not near as cold as the ice cave portion.

I think I chose the most awkward place to try and turn around.

Yellowstone

As part of the Reunion, we held a photoshoot in Yellowstone. We had enough cameras to cover all the angles. We spent the day walking over boiling hot pots while Mike recounted graphic stories he had read in "Death by Yellowstone".

Walton Family Reunion 2007

I recently returned from a Walton Family Reunion in St. Anthony, Idaho. We stayed in a huge lodge that had just about everything, foosball, volleyball, horse shoes, shuffleboard, you name it. But just in case that wasn't enough to keep the Walton Clan occupied, Travis and I introduced Goofy Golf and soon we had the whole family addicted.

Travis thinks my family is strange for singing so many songs together. I don't know what he's talking about... looks normal to me.

We love you 50 bananas, Grandma!