Love it!!!

I am going to buy one of these....





Now, half of you reading this blog will know instantly why these shirts are so awesome. The other half is probably scratching their heads thinking "those are the ugliest things I have ever seen." Well, when I was a kid, one of my all time favorite shows was Legends of the Hidden Temple. It was a game show where kids competed in teams of two for a chance to go to the Hidden Temple (which was basically a really cool maze) and win a trip to space camp or something. Each team was given a color and an animal (Blue barracuddas, Green Monkeys, Purple parrots...and so on) and I just found that you can buy these shirts! How fun!

I told Bryce we could get matching ones, wear helmets, elbow pads, and mouth gaurds, and that could be our halloween costume... :)

Cool....

HowManyOfMe.com

There are 1 or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A.

http://howmanyofme.com">How

I expected this for McKenzie Matsagas..... But apparently there's only one McKenzie Ricks too!

*Dilemma*

I need some advice fellow bloggers... I am graduating in 3 weeks, and about a week ago the thought crossed my mind... am I supposed to send out graduation announcements? I never did it for High School, but I guess you're supposed to do it for college... (?). I'm not sure what to do because I looked into ordering them through the school but they were pretty expensive. Then I tried a few ways of making my own and they just looked ghetto. So is it a tradition that's worth the cost? who do I send them to anyways? The other thing is... I'm afraid that if I send announcements, the people who get them are going to feel obligated to get me something for graduating and I don't want that (especially since most of the people getting them just got me something for my wedding).

To send or not to send? That is the question!!!

P.S. Now you know, if you DO get an announcement from me... please don't send me anything! Your love and support is all I could ever need!!!

A Wonderful Weekend!

This last weekend, we headed down to Orem to see my cousin Anne Marie and her family. Now, the last time I had seen my cousin and her husband was at her wedding when I was 9! I always loved and looked up to Anne Marie when I was little and definitely have missed seeing her over the years. Needless to say we had a lot more interesting things to talk about this time around. Bryce and I had a blast! Their kids are so cute and it was so great spending time with them. I also got to see other members of my extended family that I also hadn't seen in a while at a fun BBQ Anne Marie organized. The weather was beautiful and we even went to the batting cages and had so much fun. The weekend was perfect (except I wish we could have stayed longer :) Thanks so much guys, I love you all! No, Beck (the baby) is not naked

Me with Anne Marie and Eva

Beck enjoyinig some chocolate

Bryce Showing off at the batting cages

Before we headed back for Rexburg, we had one more stop to make in UT. We tracked down our good friend Emily Hixson who reports to the MTC tomorrow and will be heading to Halifax, Canada in a few weeks. It had been a few months since we saw this wonderful young lady and we were so happy that we got to see her before she left the country. We Love you Emily and Good Luck!!!Lastly, On the way home, we drove through a MASSIVE lightning storm in Marsh Valley. It looked like this for about an hour... kinda scary! By the way, I didn't realize the camera was picking up my singing along to the radio... (embarassing, I know) but this was the best shot of the lightning. :)

Happy Father's Day!

We wanted to give a shout to our awesome dads, Larry and Ken. You guys are such great dads and we are so lucky to be related to you. We miss you a lot and want to thank you for everything you do for us.... we love you guys!

Pretty!!!

I have nothing to post, but we did have a pretty sweet rainbow the other night.

This pic was taken at about 9:00pm.

I guess it was really a double rainbow, but the other one was kind of faint.

Happy Birthday RYAN!

Today, Ryan Ricks (Bryce's brother) turns the big 18. Let me just tell you that this kid is a crack-up. He is so much fun to be a round and always has the greatest comments. He's graduating HS in a few weeks and recently completed his Eagle Scout project. Pretty much, he's an awesome kid and we love him.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!

Adventures and Such

This weekend our dear friends Matt and Meghan Jenson came to visit. On Friday Matt and Meghan went to Yellowstone while Bryce and I were at school. They said it was fun but that is was a complete BLIZZARD! In June! Thy got back into town just in time for the last inning of my softball game (which we lost) and then we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner (yum :). All weekend it was very windy in Rexburg so on Saturday we took advantage of the winds and rented a kite from the campus recreation center. It was a pretty High-tech kite and we had so much fun flying it (or at least trying to). Later that evening, we bbq-ed and Steph, George, Ben and Andrew came over as well. Around 9:00 we made our way out to the Civil Defense caves just outside of town. These caves are amazing! It's absolutely pitch black and there was even a thick layer of ice on the floor from all the winter snow. We got to one pile of rocks and pulled out some glow-sticks. We cracked them and than cut them open and sprayed the liquid all over the rocks and ourselves. Now we were all speckled and glowing and when we turned the flashlights off, we blended in with the rocks. So, of course, we played a few rounds of hid and go seek. It we so fun! We love our friends and can't wait to see them again!

The Boys had some mad kite-flying skills

One of Matt's turns...in action

I tried my best...
Some good food...yum!

Some dark caves...fun

Good times!

Happy Birthday Kennedy!

Today, my big sis. Kennedy turned 23! Yikes! She is wonderful and I love her. I wish I was in LB to celebrate with her. She is the coolest biologist I know and I hope she had a great B-day!

Love ya Ken!!

Kids Do The Funniest Things

Yesterday I had a really funny experience. Some of you might think it’s a sad story, but everyone who was there found it hilarious....

I was observing a 3rd grade class yesterday in St. Anthony (about 15 min away) In the morning, the class Had an Ice cream party for learning their times tables. They were going on a field trip for the rest of the day so the teachers decided to have the ice cream part at 8:30 IN THE MORNING. Needless to say, a sugar rush ensued for the rest of the day. After that we went to the Junior High across the street and watched their drama class put on a play of fairy tales. We endured that and then made our way to the park so the kids could eat lunch. I was sitting with the other student teachers when we noticed that one of the 3rd graders named Blake had decided to eat his lunch while sitting in one of the baby swings. He’s a rather tall 9-year-old so it looked really funny to see his long chicken legs sticking out of the baby harness. After about 5 minutes, we see one of the teachers walk over to Blake and talk to him. Then she put her hands on his shoulders and was sort of tugging on him. It was at this moment we realized that Blake was stuck. The other 3 teacher walked over to the swings to help pull him out. They tried for about 10 minutes, pulling him in every possible direction but it was no use. At this point Blake was crying and one of the teachers was rubbing Vaseline on his legs. We then saw one of the teachers on her cell phone and found out that she was calling 911. Within 2 minutes a squad car was there and a police officer stepped out and examined the situation. After trying to pull Blake out himself, he got on his radio and called for back-up. Another 2 minutes later and we had the entire St. Anthony police force at the park (it’s a small town). After another round of tugging, they called the fire department. When they arrived, two men jumped out carry the jaws of life. They immediately snipped the chains on the swing and laid Blake on the grass. The continued to try and pull the seat off of him (his mom and the principal were now there. But it wasn’t working. Then one of the firefighters ran back to the truck and grabbed a small saw. There was such a crowd around Blake that all we could see was him lying on the ground and a firefighter sawing away at him. The seat was so tight on his legs that there were only a few spots that they could cut without cutting him. After a few more minutes, they finally got him free and he got to take the mangled swing home as a souvenir. Most kids would have been rather embarrassed by this, but fortunately Blake is one of the cool kids so all the other kids thought it was awesome that he got stuck.

THE END

Moral of the story: only babies belong in baby swings!!!