Sadie Hawkins!

That is the shirt that Jane cut, painted, and designed on behalf of us, the RED couple. (Taylor's Indian name = "Raging Firedrop") ((Who knows where that came from!))

Haley and I!

They actually made me take the bandanna off. . . shoulda known!

An update for Taylor's blog. . . because Barrett reminded me that I'm inconsistent hahaha.

I went to last Sadie Hawkins dance with Jane Stowell my friend from student council! It was honestly a blast. The theme for the dances was simply just : "COLORS" so every group did it just however that pleased. Our group assigned each couple a color and we were given red. . . we sort of went with the Indian theme a little bit, although due to the small selection of red clothing items that I own. . . I looked a little random. Jane made both of our shirts and we also (not seen in these pictures) went over to her house after she picked me up, and did some war paint on our faces! What a blast... I am going to be sad when High School is over, but I'll do my best to love it now!

Syd on her rhinoceros!

Kate on her Zebra!

The most gorgeous animal on the face of the planet, the Tiger.

A rhino

On the way there and back, I couldn't stop looking down each street we passed, they are so pretty! They remind of something for the movies with the thin road and all of the trees. Can't you just imagine riding a banana bike down the street in the summer! Like "My Girl?!"

Savvy and Syd in the Egg! They reminded me of each other a little bit!

Hallie could not stop talking about the alligator that was in the playground. She made sure to warn Savvy that should couldn't stand in front of it by it's mouth cause it was dangerous.

We got to ride the carousel and everyone had a good time. I got dizzy standing next to Sav, same with Katie haha.

That is the amazing bag of Kettle-Corn that we bought, the number one purchase of th century. The kids loved it and so did katie and I haha. Katie. . . what a geek, she is the best!

The Sweetest Girls!

HOW DO YOU COMPARE?! This is the size of the gorilla. . . we amazingly got them all to stand next to the gorilla and pose for this picture a second time! Because the first one didn't turn out.

This is a treasured picture... :D

We have all seen Savvy's sweet side.

Thank goodness for The Emperor's New Groove and The Rescuers Down Under for getting us to an from the Zoo without any car issues! Except for when Savvy wanted her mommy and a "dink of wada"

We struggled getting the kids to leave the playground to go see animals.

So Katie and I went to the ZOO this Weekend! Over our UEA or FALL BREAK. It was the first time i have ever gone and I'm thinkin that I could have had a little more fun seeing animals and covering ground but it was really fun. When I say I didn't cover much ground, it's because sometimes three year olds don't walk very fast! We had five kids under the age of 6 I believe. Hallie and Savvy, along with Katie's cousin's Rachel (the oldest), Sydnee and kate (Twins)!
Honestly it was so tiring! We made the first mistake of going without a stroller and nothing other than a backpack with snacks. We managed and only had one little scare when we couldn't see Kate for ten seconds haha, I got good at counting the 5 little girls really fast. We had one lunch break and one bathroom break that held us all over the whole time. Savannah fell asleep in Katie's arms which helped us realize that we should have had a stroller because for the rest of the time we just had to switch off the dead weight, haha. Hallie Tripped and cut her knee a little bit and had to be really strong without a band-aid. At one point a while later I asked her how her knee was doing and she said, "could you please not talk to me about it, it makes me think about it and then it hurts," so I just let her be tough.
Rachel and Hallie were the easiest to keep track of and they helped us out with the littler girls, especially Rach!
Sydney, Kate, and Savvy are little dolls, but only in one sense, they most definitely are not stationary. Always had to keep an eye on Sav as you can imagine. Sydney was always trailing behind the group! She just walks so slow! It honestly was funny to look back and see slowly walking as she looked at the animals.
I did get to enjoy the animals a little bit! Most of all I love Tigers. They are amazing, and the most beautiful animals. If only I could have run around like a kid myself! There could have been a little more time for Katie and I to chat but we made a great team anyways!

I entered my picture (Water Drop one) into the reflections contest so we'll just have to wait and see how everything turns out. It turned out really nice when It was actually printed and mounted although I know everyone is getting sick of looking at it. I'm pretty hopeful for it too! I submitted a poem with it also to explain my connection to the theme.

What a lucky Uncle I am and blessed with awesome friends!

Oh yeah and I'm going to Sadies with a girl from student council named Jane Stowell.
And I'll be singing my required Solo in Chamber choir soon... I'm singing Danny Boy

I have a choir concert on Wednesday the 22nd of October and it is free!
Love you all

BEFORE

AFTER

I finally Finished my truck . . . at least the wheels and the tires! I'm excited to drive it now, just working on the sound system now.

I don't have any pictures from homecoming but it was a blast! I went with Cami Quinones and had a ball for sure! . . .

NEW POSTAGE!

This Is a picture I've always wanted to take and mom finally helped me by being a great "water dripper" hahaha.  I like it.  

It's a been a while since I posted... I'll quick update you all. . . We had our first two football games. . . one of which was a big loss the other we lost in overtime.  I need to be less emotionally involved in those games because when we lose like that it ruins my whole night and I become anti-social. 

 Anyways, we had our "HI week" assembly/skit/video and it all went great!  The administration has complimented us quite a bit on the work we've done with those kinds of things thins year... We've been blessed in all that we've done for student council, and we make sure to pray before anything we do, it's great to be with friends like all of them especially Kyle.  

Homecoming is on the 13th of September and I'm getting excited!  A little nervous but it'll be great!  We have to get a lot more ready for homecoming with Student council so it's a little stressful right now but it'll all work out.  

I GOT A TRUCK! hehe, I worked on it quite a bit today and it's looking great!  We payed $1400 for it and it's a steal!  We already put $400 (expected) into the brakes but we took the original price down to cover that.  The body is solid and all too!  It's a 94' FORD Ranger.  

Wyoming. . .

The Bunk House

I left Monday night for Wyoming along with Kyle Hansen, Brother Bott, and three of his grandkids.  We slept in the bunk house which is a medium sized one roomed cabin with 5 bunk beds . . . therefore accommodating 10, we only had six.  We started the work early Tuesday morning.  Kyle and I staining fence, and the kids working with Brother Bott.  We spent two full days staining and talking about pretty much everything!  

Chillin

That's the staining gun that we used . .  we switched off.  We are at the top of the hill, this is still the first day.  You can see the fence line we did, all the way through those bushes, across the creek, and to where the light green starts.  The fence that continues up the light green is the fence we built at the beginning of the summer.

The fence was between Brother Bott's property and a guy named James who we working with mostly.  He has about 400 acres of land along with a massive home and a huge barn.  He owns a portion of Arctic Cat, and used to be a petroleum engineer.  When we went in to his garage he had a BMW, a corvette, a Bara Cuda (A classic muscle worth probably 200, 000 ((just a guess)) which he bought from a museum), a bullet bike, a jeep, two Harleys, and his wife drives a brand new suburban.  All of that, along with his fourwheeler and his sons, were in his garage.  He had any tool you can imagine down at his shop, but we never got to see his shop, he just told us about it.  He is probably about 45 and retired.  Everything he owns was purchased with cash.  (All above information was acquired through careful conversation and strategic questioning) :D

PEACE

That's a picture from close to the end of our staining on the second day . . . We stained that fence all the way up that hill and across it to the right also.

There was a tiny little fire early the first morning that we barely noticed, and an hour later it looked like this.  James said they'll probably just contain it and let it burn until winter because it really can't be stopped.  Wow.

That's how filthy I was..

This is when I FINALLY got home on Wednesday night. . . at 2:30am . . and I still had to get in the shower cause I couldn't get in my bed with stain all over me. 

I still haven't gotten all of the stain off of me.

Weekend Moments

Friday

    So we went to the BBQ at Barrett and Jeanine's and had a blast with everyone!  Katie joined us a little later and it was great to have her there with the family too.  Then we went to see Batman, Dark Night which was, close to the greatest action/suspense film ever.  There were some awesome messages within the story and some great story line along with amazing dialogue.  It would be a great movie to Analyze for an english class or something of the sort.  A perfect way to end the night! 

Saturday

I woke up saturday morning and debated within my head whether I wanted to go to Utah Lake with Beej or not, but I knew I would have a good time as much as I didn't want to get up and going... quite yet haha.  But I ended up going to the Lake with Barrett and Curtis Marshall, later joined by Matt Row.  The water was rough enough that we didn't do any skiing or wakeboarding so we just chillaxed!  We played a lot of smash-ball from the front of the boat to the back of the boat and chased down a lot of loose balls.  We got home at about 1:30 and I headed home to get ready for my piano recital.

I practiced a lot leading up to the recital... but it never seems to be enough and I can't figure it out.  I didn't play as well as a had wished and I was more frustrated/sad then I let show on the way home, but it's okay... I'll just do better next time.  I was in an anti-social mood and so when I got home I played with the Rubiks Cube and painted some of the White Rod Iron fence in the Front of the House.  I took my time cleaning the office afterwards cause I wanted time to think and be alone.  

On my way home from the office I went up towards "Y" mountain past Timpview cause I didn't want to go straight home.  I drove up on the scooter to see the sunset and the lightning storm... The valley looked amazing with the orange glow about it with the white flashes on and off.  I started to head home and realized I was going to catch the storm.  it started to sprinkle and three... maybe four seconds later it started to POUR!  I rode home with the biggest smile on my face (when I could open my eyes) because I was loving the rain, even though it hurt when I was going 45 mph.  I passed Kyle Hansen and the Mckell's while I was on my way home and they were out in the rain too.  So I stopped and we ran through the gutters and rode around even though it was a little cold.   We found some places where the water was over the sidewalk and up to our shins!  After a while of the puddles and the rain dying down, we ran and got into the Mckell's hot tub for a little to warm up.  Then we made Hot Chocolate and played a game called Queen Elephant!  It was probably the best ending possible to such a horrible day.  One of my favorite nights of the summer for sure!  

P.S. We need to play Queen Elephant next time we're together... so remind me!

This is the Rod Iron Fence before I painted it. :D  I'll put up the painted one.. eventually.

Riding On the Ranch

On Tuesday instead of working at the ranch we finally got the real pay for the work we've been doing, we got to ride.  I forgot to take my camera which was a big mistake but oh well.  We went up at 7:30, it takes about an hour and a half to get the ranch in Hanna.  We spent four hours on the horses.  We rode up the mountain side on a trail for a while and then did some more intense off-trail stuff, even had to get off the horses and hike on foot for a while.  When we go to the top we were on the spine of a gorgeous hillside that over looked a perfectly green valley of trees.  The first thing we saw was the valley and a hawk gliding through the sky, it was perfectly quiet while we heard the hawk screeching, it was amazing.  On the way back, my horse decided he wanted to be in the front of the pack, and I decided that if we were going to be in front I'd see how fast I could get him to go... so I clicked my mouth, tapped my heel, and spoke a quiet, "let's go" and we took off.  A trot to a gallop, a gallop to a canter, and then we finally broke out into a run.  It was a surreal feeling, as if you're flying.  The ride goes from awkward and uncomfortable to indescribably graceful yet intense.  It was the fastest I've ever ridden, and also the most fun I've had.  What an amazing chance to enjoy the beauties of the outdoors with the best guide out there, and the smartest man I know Cordell Bott.

Sunday Night Katie and I went for a walk around the Temple it was way fun.  We hadn't hung out for a few weeks actually and it was great to talk.  We made a couple of laps around while I told her about my comedy routine ideas... Then drove home!  It was a great Sunday.  

Katie has had some photo shoots and is taking some modeling as well as acting classes.  On Monday she started dancing seven hours a day again!  We are great friends but we are keeping it at a friendship level as best as we can.  We haven't spent very much time together this summer which has made it easier to be just friends!  This summer has been full of work and fun!

BLOGGING

I've had ZERO time to blog the past month and so I'm going to put up three or four new ones! . . the end of school and what has gone on this summer!  yahoo!

SixFlags and My party!

Haley and I were surprised by Dad two days ago when he asked us, "Do you wiwy wiwy wiwy wiwy wuv me?" and we answered with a questioning, "yes...?" hahaha then he told us that he bought haley and I two tickets to fly to California for Memorial Day and go to DisneyLand, although I think we are going to drive to SixFlags! (as seen above)  So after Haley's talk today in church, we'll leave at about 6:30 and go to the airport where we'll fly to California and stay with the Madsens for a night!  Then we'll spend all day at Six Flags and we'll be back Tuesday morning!  What a surprise!

Taylor O and I threw our annual end of the year party and it was even bigger than last year!  We had people parked from the cotterel's all the way to the target street!  I met some new people from Lone Peak, PG, and Timp. . . so to say the least, word got around haha.   Anyways it was way fun.  We used Haley's speakers from Grandpa Greaves to bump some tunes and had a little dance party, fire, basketball, and tramp going on in our backyard while over at Taylor's there was volleyball, badminton, trampoline, music, and some soccer/frisbee!  It really was so fun!  Anyways Dad suggested that we do that once a month . . . haha interesting.  I'm hoping to have our student council video soon!  We'll see you after California and before Powelll!

Soccer and SChool

Well our soccer team made the front of both sports pages for an upset in the semi-finals! . . . we won the game 1-0 with a goal that came with 24 seconds left in the second overtime period.  It was the craziest thing ever.... We got out of school early to drive about an hour to Woodscross where our fans dominated. . . bruin crazies!   Oh the memories.   I had a snow cone.  We are all very ready to be done with school.   So, the Soccer team plays tomorrow for state!

So I call this the Vanishing Salt Shaker . . . We sat and did magic tricks Saturday night also! hope you enjoy this one:D

Alright so I made this one from the top of the Cottrell's playground!  haha

So My friends say I have 'trick shot' skills

So Last night we played some ball . . . These are a couple of the cool shots that were made!

This one is from that very corner of the basketball court... The other is just sitting as you see on my buttocks!

Saturday . . May 03

Today Dad and I cleaned out the backyard a little bit, and the garage, It's getting there!  We got a new door handle and deadbolt so make sure you tell Mom that you LOVE IT! 

We finally put up the swing in the backyard to officially mark the beginning of UTAH summer.  We reorganized the dance room and I cleaned my room:D haha.  This is so lame!  I'm going to play some ball tonight with my friends. . . so maybe I'll take a picture so I can be an official blogger.  Haley did Katie's hair today for Lone Peaks Prom, not goin to lie, it makes me a little frustrated, I know Katie but I don't know these other dudes!  Thanks for the lovin' on my guitar picture! THE END:D

This is My guitar . . . and I picture that I really like . . Here ya go Hales.

P.S. Prom is on the 10th and I'm getting stoked!  Any ideas for an AWESOME DAY DATE?

READ THIS!

okay . . so I think I'm going to start some consistent blogging.  I just want to know if it's really worth it.  So just to know if people will even read it, let me know by however you do it on here. . comments or w/e, and tell me you actually read this! :D . . love to my family! 

          -taylor ray

FOOTBALL

So . . I'm trying to decide If I"m playing football right now.  I've fasted and prayed, and I haven't gotten a really firm answer.  Making chamber and student council have given me a little direction but I still don't know.  That's my update for you family.