Adventures of an M&M: Sweet Summertime

SUMMER!!!

Casino- This was actually before leaving for Ecuador. Erica and her family were leaving for Jamaica and I hadn’t seen them much since being home. So I met them in Pittsburgh where they were staying for the night before their early flight. The evening started by an adventurous drive downtown which is almost one of my least favorite things to do! But despite getting lost and almost getting run down by a bus and angry people yelling at me, we finally got there J The Rivers is a new casino in Pittsburgh and from what I have heard it is really nice, and after seeing it I feel the same. The main reason for my going was to hang out with Erica and eat at this awesome buffet everyone raves about. And again, those people are right. This buffet was huge and had every kinds of variety of food you could think of. Man that was some good eating that night!

After eating we went downstairs to the casino and I gave myself $20 to gamble with, if I won I won, if I lost it I would stop. I wanted my twenty to go further so I played the penny slots and it was a lot of fun. No worries I am not addicted or anything but it was fun! I ended up leaving $5 down and I am really okay with that.

Funny story: Erica’s dad Eric is a really funny guy and I love his humor and how quickly he comes up with some of the stuff he says. Anyway we were at the slot machines and Eric was on a roll (like up $10) and then he kept pressing his luck and lost all of it. So he pulls out his phone and on every machine is the number for gambling hotline if you have a gambling problem. Erica dials the numbers and starts talking to the guy telling him that he has got a problem. The guy asked how much he spent and lost and Eric replies $10! I can tell the man on the phone is instantly confused because that’s when Eric starts laughing and sarcastically asking for serious help. I was dying laughing already at their conversation so far and then even harder when the guy hung up on Eric! You just never know what’s going to happen with Eric around.

Anniversary Party- A few days after returning home from Ecuador, Erica threw her parents a surprise 25^th wedding anniversary party. Now if you know Donna, nothing gets past her, so this would be big if it did. And Erica and her grandma pulled it off! They were so shocked and could not get over what was happening. It also threw them off that it was a month early, because they planned it around a time that I would be home! See how much they care about me! It was a blast and I hope Donna and Eric had fun.

Dinner with family- The next day I went to Pappap and Grandma’s house for a family gathering! When I say gathering I mean my grandparents and aunt and uncle that we get together with at least once a month if not more! These are the closest family I live to and they are my favorite, but don’t tell them that :) It was kind of a celebration of my birthday that we missed for my being in Ecuador and for everyone to hear about my trip and see pictures and stories. We had delicious steak and macaroni salad which is like the best dinner combo ever, oh and bread! I think when it comes to my family we could sit around and find things to talk about forever and that’s one reason I love them so much. I don’t like that now I live in Utah I don’t get to see them too much, but for sure every time I go home we always get together.

I haven’t told many people this but every time I leave home (which to me is still Ligonier), I make sure I know when my next trip home will be, or I get real freaked out. I don’t like not knowing when I’ll be back next. So my next trip home will be for Christmas break, but I will get to see all of my family in September when we meet up in Ohio for my girl (cousin) Rachel’s wedding!!! I am so excited for that as well! So until then family, we will talk on the phone, text, and maybe even skype!

(this isn't from our dinner but its the same family!)

Biking- It seems to be a tradition that my parents and I started a few years ago, but that is to go biking at Ohiopyle right before I leave for the west. We started it 2 years ago and then last year we allowed my brothers to come and we added in kayaking as well. That was a lot of fun! And this year it was back to just biking and the 3 of us. 2 years ago was also when Pappap and I had started planning our biking trip to Washington DC. It never was able to happen things fell through. But I started thinking of it more and more lately and I brought it up on our bike ride. I am not sure if my parents were just going along with my crazy dream but as we biked dad and I planned things down to what we would need to bring and how we would go about doing this adventure. With luck the 5 of us will together be able to make this trip or at least part of it! My parents don’t think they can last more than a few days and I agree with them on that, but someday it is my ultimate goal to do the whole thing start to finish all 358 miles of it. And since getting back for Ecuador I have this desire to keep setting goals and going after them, because I now know that there is really nothing standing in my way.

No bike ride in our family is complete without getting ice cream afterwards. We have this one little shop that we always go to and it never fails. Funny story: Last summer after we went kayaking my family met our grandparents who then were going to bike with us. Before we went and got our bikes Grandma was like who wants ice cream?! Grandma had not been biking with us before and we told her we usually saved that til after the bike ride. She replied with yeah we will get it then too! I love how much my grandma loves her ice cream!

After we biked about 8 miles we drove over to Cucumber falls which is a sweet waterfall, but with the lack of rain and 100+ degree days lately it was not much more than a trickle. But it was still pretty great, but then again I think that about all nature!