Week One! Living the Dream!

  Alaska is awesome yo! I woke up about 4 times in the night my first night here and thought it was time to get up! The sky was light and it was 3 a.m. It was the strangest thing. I go to sleep in the light and I wake up in the light! Wow! So, we'll start at the start with my night of light. Then it was Sunday. It was a great day, and my list of things that I've never done before started right after Sunday School. My feet hadn't been on Alaskan soil for 10 hours and a lady approached me and asked if I'd go on a blind date with her son. Well, I've never been on a blind date before and I was a little stunned and tired and said, well, sure. 
  Then onto Monday. I had my first day at work for Aunt Carol in her garden! During the week we saran-wrapped a lot of ground! They put this plastic called IRT on the ground in rows with a tractor deal and it keeps the weeds from growing and keeps the plants insulated! It's crazy cool! I felt like we were saran-wrapping the world! It was cool! I also planted a TON of garlic, onions, turnips and potatoes! It was a good week at work! To keep my mind busy while I'm planting I listen to a book or music and I even made a friend in the garden. My cousin Lori's dog, Kenzie, is staying with Aunt Carol and she'll sit by me or at the head of the row I'm working on for hours and then when I get up, she spits a tennis ball at me and at the end of the day, I finally indulge her with a 5 minute session of fetch. It's pretty fun. Anyways, this isn't really going in chronological order, but whatever. 
  Monday night for FHE, I joined Willardson's and Uncle Barry gave us a great lesson on using For the Strength of Youth to help guide our lives and we talked about that when we come across something that might make us question our faith or something, that we need to turn to the scriptures and conference talks and words of our Prophet to find the answers to our questions. I know that the leaders of the church that have been called of God will not lead me astray. After our lesson, we went to the driving range for some golf practice. Ha. I tried golfing once, I scored 75 points on a mini-golf put-put. It was bad. But I went in with a good attitude and Uncle Barry did a mighty fine job coaching me! (Austin--next time we're together, we'll go golfing, but you better bring a pen and paper or a video camera because I'll be givin' you a clinic! Be prepared!) That was Monday. 
 Tuesday was work and then that night me and Sadie went and practiced golf again. I set my ball up and said, Let's see if I'm still good (which was a silly thing to say "still" because I was never good), and I hit it about 10 feet and said, Nope. But hey! I'll keep practicing and then I'll hit it 15 feet! haha. It's fun though! And after we played golf, we went to the church and played basketball with some old men. It was a little intimidating, but it was fun! 
  Wednesday was work and then Park Night for the YSA. So we went to the park and met some friends! It was a good time! 
  Thursday was my date. It was good. We hiked the Butte and chatted and then came down and that was that. 
  Friday was a little different. Instead of working in the garden, I went into town and worked for Sweetie Pies. My Kenley cousins have a business at the Friday Market and they sell deep fried pies. Talk about heaven in your mouth and belly! Awesome! I felt honored to be working with Amy and Rita because me and Sadie have always talked about the "cool set of cousins" which is pretty much anyone older than like Brett and Tyson and Keith. All my other cousins are cool too, but those girls around Katie's age, they're like the "cool" cousins that we never dared talk to and stuff, and here I was at the Friday Market working with Rita and Amy, two of the cool cousins and they were like talking to me and it was great! And we sold like 600+ pies! It was busy! 
  And then Friday night, me and Sadie and Devin and Michael and Marika went and hiked Hatcher's Pass. I thought we'd stay on a nice trail or something. Wrong. We went straight up the mountain and were whackin' through trees and going up steep stuff. Every step I took, I was thinking, I'm not going to be able to come down this, it's too steep. I'll die. And I was picturing Grannie and Grandpa waking up and reading the paper at breakfast like they always do and seeing the headline "5 young hikers found dead at Hatcher's Pass" and then going and seeing and empty bed and then finding out that I was dead. And I almost texted Olivia a picture of what I had to hike down and tell her that if I didn't live, that she should know that I love her and to tell all the family that I love them too, and how Dad and Mom would be like $500 richer because I once wrote a will that willed them all my money when I died, which is only $500 at the moment. There were times on the hike when we were hanging on to branches to keep from falling to our deaths and times when we were scrambling crab style or sliding sideways and stuff. It was an adventure if I've ever been on one. And then we thought we were home free and were taking it easy when we started thinking about how bears could so easily be hidden in the bush that we were going to have to whack back through. But, we lived and I realize I was being a little dramatic, but it was scary! Oh well, nobody died and we only had a few bumps and bruises. It was a success after all. 
  Saturday was another good day! I went and helped clean the church in the morning with the YSA and then we went to the Sutton Playground (A Playground that the community is helping to build) and did some construction work. But I'll be honest, I'm a little dumb in that field, so I held boards and sometimes screwed the screws in and I ran the sander belt. I did get good at the sander belt though. I left there early to go and join Grannie and Grandpa for our Memorial Day weekend picnic lunch/dinner at Uncle David's cabin. That was fun! I got to visit with Heidi and Dave and Kathy and it was a good time. Saturday night was also a good time! Sadie and I went out to Devin's lake house and hung out there. It was like my dream of summer. I was with friends, and we had a fire, and water and ice-cream and we just visited into the night. It was great! 
  Today I went to the YSA ward and requested my records transferred up here and I like the ward and life is really just so great!! And along with all my daily things, living with Grannie and Grandpa is a joy in itself! They are the funniest and nicest people in all the world! They say some funny stuff and they just love me and I just love them! You guys, even if I didn't do anything else fun the rest of the summer, this would be a ROCKIN' summer in the record books! I love it here!!