I am sooooo excited for the new, and last, book in the Twilight Series, Breaking Dawn!!! It comes out Saturday morning, that is only five days!! Lexi and I are each going to get a copy, and are going to read all Saturday, and into the night, whatever it takes to finish the book! I can't wait!

School starts next Monday. I cannot believe this is our last week of summer; there is so much I still have to do! But I am looking forward to the year, I am excited about the classes I am in and the teachers I have (with a few exceptions). I am also excited for school to start because that means that basketball will start soon; we start pre-season training in September. Actually, I am not ready to give up most of my free time, and to be sore all the time. Not yet. :)

Even though my Swiss Adventure is over, I am still going to blog, but it will be a little less interesting.

I am still going to basketball conditioning which includes an hour in the weight room and an hour in the gym. After the first two days of Lexi and I going we were SO sore, but we are on our second week now and are doing well.

A bunch of people from my ward went to go see Batman on opening night. Mike, Lex and I got to the movie theatre at 8:00, and the movie started at 12:00. I was so tired, just sitting there. But the movie was great!

I still have summer homework that I have to do; a ten page historical fiction project that is due on the first day of school. Ugh.

Today we went to registration at our school, which was exciting. I saw alot of friends and people I knew, paid all the fees, got my official schedule, got my I.D. card, and showed my little brothers around because I am a big junior now! I am so excited to be a junior, even though everyone I talk to says that their junior year was the hardest year, I am still excited!

One Week

Well, I haven't blogged in a whole week! I have really enjoyed being home, obviously, and have eased myself back into life in Arizona. I started basketball conditioning on Monday with Lexi, and it was soooo hard! Being in Switzerland for 5 weeks, and not working out in months made in that way...

I have already gone swimming about 5 times, been to several parties of friends, and gotten alot tanner than I was when I got home. My family kept teasing me for how white I had gotten so it was nice to spend some time in the sun. It is also nice to be able to text again because I couldn't while I was in Switzerland!

Church on Sunday was amazing, because it is so much easier to feel the spirit and stuff when you are listening to people talking and singing in English! I loved the welcome I got from all the Young Women and leaders and everyone. I felt so special :) It was so nice to see all the girls I care about.

Today is a pretty momentous day, because I am going on my first date. I am going with a boy named Trent, Lexi (my sister) is going with his older brother and Mike (my brother) is going too with a nice girl, and we are also going with another couple. It is going to be a big group date. I am so excited! But whenever I thought about my first date I didn't think that Lexi and Mike would be there too! But I am sure it will be so much fun.

Today is also a good day because I am going to the midnight premiere of Batman! I am sooo excited! I heard that there are already people standing in line for it, and it is't 2 o'clock yet! We are going with a big group and are leaving for the theatre at 8'ish, so we can all get seats together!
So that is what I have been up to since I have been home!

p.s. Have I ever mentioned that Arizona is hot?

Home Sweet Home

I got into Sky Harbor Airport last night at around 6:40, late by about 15 minutes. I walked out of the gate and saw my dad standing there waiting for me and felt SOO happy to see him! We walked down the familiar, hot brownish hallways of the airport to baggage claim where I saw the rest of my family standing there. Nick looks so much taller, Lexi tanner, mom tanner too, same with Luke. I dont know if i can say the same about Mike but I bet he was tanner too. After hugs all around, we got my stuff and talked the whole time.
My flight over here was...good. We left from home in Zurich at 6:30 in the morning to catch the 6:40 bus. Which means that I alone had to drag my two suitcases plus my carry on up a hill on the sidewalk to the bus stop, pull them onto the bus, pull them off the bus and through the train station, onto the train, off the train, through the train station to the airport, throught the airport to the baggage check in place. Then I dropped them off. But I was so tired from pulling those bags everywhere! My left forearm/arm/shoulder hurts especially, even typing this! But once we dropped them off I felt so much better. We found our gate and waited to board. When we did, I got an aisle seat, which was awesome. Nine hours later we got off the plane in Philadelphia and got our bags and dragged them more to another security check point and customs and stuff like that, then dropped our bags off again (yay) then found our other gate. Then Jenna, the girls and I went and got Chick Fil A, which was so good, then boarded the plane. This time I wasn't sitting next to Jenna and all them, I was sitting about 10 rows behind them, in a window seat, next to an old man so smelled so terrible, it almost made me sick. That flight was terrible because I didn't have my neck pillow and I just wanted to go home! That flight was about 5 hours long. Then we got off and, well you know what happened after that. When I got home, I ate some salsa, hung out with my family for about an hour, then went to sleep, with the help of some Tylenol PM, before 10. I had been awake for more than 24 hours because I had not slept on the plane at all, so I was a tired wreck! It was so nice to sleep in my own bed. I am so glad to be home safely!

Ice Cream

Since I have been in Switzerland, I have eaten soooo much ice cream! The ice cream here is so good, we get Movenpick, the best ice cream company around, everywhere we go, sometimes even twice a day. We always joke about getting some, and we always do. 

    It is a real comfort food, but once I get home there is no way I am eating any, for at least a couple weeks!! 

   I usually get chocolate (as shown in picture) but there are lots of other yummy flavors. Just tonight, Jenna made us skookies with barely baked cookie dough and Movenpick vanilla ice cream. It was so good. I just thought that I would blog about ice cream because it is a big joke with Jenna and my family! 

Europa Park, Germany

This morning we left at around 8:45 for my last big Saturday Adventure, Europa Park! It is in Germany, about 2 hours away. It is called Europa Park because each country in Europe has it's own section in the park. It was a surprise for the girls, so when Lexi read the sign that said 'Europa Park Ausfhart" she was pretty excited. The first ride we went on was the Pegasus, and Lexi and I went together in the same cart, and Jenna and Mia went together. Mia was fine for the first 20 seconds or so then she got scared and started screaming! She was still whimpering when Lexi and I got off the Pegasus for the second time in a row. It was Lexi's first big rollercoaster and we were all very happy that she enjoyed it. (We bought the pictures of us when the camera takes a picture when we were on the ride, and I will add those when Jenna scans them in!) 

Here is me on the teacup/boat ride! Our little cart thing was spinning, just a little, for no reason (except that I kept leaning over the side and pushing us off from the edge, just to keep things interesting). 

     Then we went on a London tour bus ride, which was fun, except that Jenna was getting sick and there were scary pretend police officers running around in masks and smacking people on the butt with their black stick things and pretending to arrest people. I did not like them at all. 

    The girls and I went on a wild taxi ride, similar to the teacup ride in Disneyland, except with taxis. It was really fun, but neither Jenna or Jarrod wanted to go on it, because I guess they didn't want to get sick or something. 

   Lexi and I did go on a real teacup ride and we were spinning it around like crazy! It was sooo much fun. I forgot how much I LOVE amusement parks. We also went on a plane ride, twice, and the girls went on another plane ride similar to the Dumbo one in Disneyland. Lexi, Jarrod and I went on two other rollercoasters, which were ok, but not worth the 40 minute wait for each of them. At least Lexi enjoyed them!

 Jenna and I went on a very cheesy rip off ride of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was so fake I was just laughing. 

   For lunch we went to a Greek place and got some pork steak thing with french fries, and a pita bread thing filled with yuro (sorry mom, i spelled that wrong) meat and cabbage and stuff. It was pretty yummy. Later we got Movenpick ice cream (I got chocolate, of course) and later we got some cotton candy. For dinner we got spaghetti and pizza, which was surprisingly good. For dessert I got churros, which tasted exactly like the scones my mom makes. Mia got cotton candy that was white because the lady added regular sugar, not flavored. Lexi got a popsicle shaped like a cactus, Jenna got a chocolate covered banana and Jarrod got more Movenpick. Holy sugar intake, batman. 

  The dumb thing about Europa Park is that it closes at six o'clock. That is dumb because it doesn't get dark until after 9! And it is dumb because the place is over run with young couples! Maybe all amusement parks are that way, but I didn't notice the last time i was in Disneyland...

   Oh, when we were waiting in line once, I saw this guy and I swear he had a bionic/mechanical eye! It was so cool and scary looking! His eye was all silver where it should have been brown, and his black pupil was tiny. I would feel really bad if he was blind in that eye... but it was just so cool looking and I have never seen that before, in real life. You do see alot of interesting people at amusement parks. 

Fourth of July!

For Fourth of July this year, I went to a BBQ with other Americans in the area, as well as some Germans who tagged along! We drove up to a park, and I played sand volleyball with the missionaries, other men, women and children for about 2 hours. Straight. Here is me warming up with the Elders! I had another picture of all of us playing, but for some reason it isn't working...

Then I ate a burrito, talked for a bit, then left. 

Fascinating, I know. Just kidding, I really enjoyed myself. The weather was perfect, and the kids had a great time playing with sparklers and small fireworks. Only one kid burned her fingers, so it was a good day! 

Night Out

Last night, I took the 6:35 train, by myself, here in Adliswil, and met up with my friend Jessica for a 'girls night out'. I was so nervous and anxious about taking the train by myself because I had never done it before! But everything was fine. Jessica and I walked around Zurich, and by the lake for about 2 hours, just talking and going into little shops. We got ice cream (I got a Magnum bar) and we went into a candy store, where I was excited to see that they had those little blue and white gummy sharks that they have in the States! So I bought some. Very exciting. Then we went back to the train station so that I could catch the 9:35 train back home. We had some time, so we stopped in  a little cafe and got some country cut potato wedges (my family calls them Jo-Jo's) and they were SO good! I ate the first one and thought "Jack in the Box curly fries". I was in heaven. Then I got on the train and Jenna picked me up. So now I can officially go anywhere around Zurich on the train by myself. 

  Oh and I saw this building and loved it:

Crunch Time!

I only have one more week until I come home, so this week is going to be crazy! What with packing, shopping, laundry... but it will be alot harder on Jenna than it will be on me. The hardest and craziest part of the week I think will come Wednesday morning, when we have to get all of our luggage and the girls to the airport, at six o'clock in the morning, on the train. Since I have two suitcases plus a carry-on, I am going to have my hands full! Yikes. But after we check our bags in, it will be alot easier. And then in Philadelphia we have to get our bags and check them back in and go through security and customs, so that could also be a nightmare... but I am sure everything will be fine... just keep telling myself that... :) 

   Yesterday I did some shopping, (I bought some Oreos and they were delicious! Jenna made some into a Oreo milkshake and I was in heaven) and today we were planning on going to Google (Jarrod's work) to eat lunch because they have a big cafeteria there, but Jarrod said that they are serving gross food, so we are going to go tomorrow. Last week, they served horse and ostrich. GROSS. Tomorrow we were planning on going on a short hike in the mountains but we are going shopping instead, because Jenna is freaking out that she hasn't bought any gifts for anyone back at home. 

    That is basically what is going on over here! I miss everyone and can't wait to come home and see you all!! And eat ALOT of American food.