Family Reunion!

The past week was the Hoppins Family Reunion - and it was super fun! The first day was really chill. Everyone just showed up and we all hung out, ate food, and got to know one another. The next day everyone got on an amazing bus and went to some musuems and then the beach! The beach was kind of cold but it was fun. My cousins pretty much rock! The next day was family game day. We went to a park and played EFY games and water baseball. It was fun you had to stand in pools at each base and the whole family was making fun of each other and being competitive it was fun :)Then we had a movie night - we watch Enchanted. On the last day we went back to the park and took pictures of the individual families and the whole group it was pretty insane. Then we went back to my Aunts house for laser tag, bungee run, bounce house, food, volley ball and just to hang out! Volleyball was probably the best because everyone got into it and idk it was just fun. Laser tag was fun too. All the teenagers went in and played tag which was fun except everyone kept getting hurt because we were running around in this maze and someone would turn the same corner as you and BAM! your on the ground haha. It was totally worth it. The bungee run was also way fun. You put this belt around you that had a bungee cord connected to it and you ran as far as you could and placed your "marker" where you landed and then you flew back. I wasn't very good but Erin was! Sunday everyone just left, well mostly everyone. Everyone that stayed came over for a left over dinner night. All in all it was a way fun week and I already miss it!

Dad's Birthday

Yesterday was my dad's birthday! We all woke up early and got ready because we still hadn't really gone birthday shopping haha which was okay because we still needed to get food for the barbeque we were going to have later on that day. Once everyone was ready we went to costco and got food, clothes for dad, and new phones for the house haha. After that we came home we wrapped presents, cleaned the house, and prepared chips and other stuff for when people started to come. Once some people showed up we started playing uno spin which was really fun and I must say that I dominated!! :) After that we ate some steak and it was very delicious! Then we all talked and went inside to play Yahtzee - which I also dominated in. It was a really fun night. Who knew my dad and stepmom's friends could be so fun!? Haha well it was a good day and my dad had a great birthday.

4th of July!

Today was the fourth of July and it was pretty fun. We just chilled all day and cleaned haha we went to Alex's work for dinner it was pretty tasty. We ate alligator! It was actually really good! When it was time for the fireworks we just went to a little place downtown and watched them. There were people everywhere! It was so crowded! I was glad we didn't go to the beaches though, they are way worse! All in all it was a pretty good celebration for our country!

Day at the Museum

Today Morgan, McKenna, and I went to the museum of natural history! It was so much fun. We saw fossils and watched cool videos about plate techtonics and stuff. There were all kinds of animals and photographs. It was really cool. After we went there we just walked around and went to all the little shops in Balboa park. We met some cool people in the stores that told us really cool stories about the stuff they sold in their stores. They were all way nice. After we finished that we decided to go to the Aerospace museum. On our way over there though we saw the History of Man museum which looked a whole lot cooler, so we went there instead. I am so glad we did. It was really cool! They had this whole ancient mayan section which I loved! They also had an egypt section with mummies and everything. There was even this room where you could go in and live in the life of a child during those times, it was cool. There was also a fossil digging section, the beginning of man section- which showed the evolution of man - and a whole lot more. It was really exciting! There was also a book sale going on outside that we went and checked out. Turns out the books were only like a dollar each so I bought a couple of books that looked good. All in all it was a really funny day, and educational. :)

EFY

Last week was EFY and it was so much fun! My cousins Erin, Krisie, Landon, Dallon, Joe, and Tory all came up with me and we stayed at our Aunt Mary's. On the first day of EFY we all showed up at the institute building in Sandy, UT and signed in. Then we got in our groups and went to go meet our counselor. Erin, Kristie, and I were all in the same group! It was way fun. Our counselors name was Brandi and she was so cool! Once we met all the other girls in our group we went to go meet the boys! It was really funny on our way to go meet them because of course we were all looking to see who was cute. Once we met with them their counselor Jon gave everyone a piece of paper with questions on it and we all had to go around and talk to everyone to get the answers to the questions. By the end of the game, which was like 30 minutes, everyone already knew everyone else and we were all way close. It was way cool! Everyone was so friendly and outgoing, we had the best group for sure! Once we got in our company, which is the boys and girls combined, we went inside the building to go meet our director and all that good stuff. By the end of the first day our company had already made up our cheer and we were all good friends with nick-names. Mine was C.Seay. Tuesday was a fun day although I don't remember very much haha. There was a dance though and it was really fun. All of the counselors got on the stage and taught us dances to some songs. It was really fun all of the counselors were way cool! Wednesday we had classes were you just go in a room and a speaker talks to you about a specific subject. There was this one lady who was teaching us scripture mastery songs and she was hilarious! I don't even know how to describe her! She was this petite girl with short blonde hair and she sang with a mexican accent! She was awesome. Another good thing about wednesday is I met Thatcher. He was an employee with the catering company that fed us. He was a total stud! That day Erin, Kristie, and I also auditioned for the variety show. It was really intimidating! We went in and did our dance, but when we got done the judges just kind of looked at us and were like okay thanks. Then we just left. It was so scary! But we ended up making it :). It was also game day! We went to a park near the institure building and played a ton of games and had our cheer off. Our company made it to the final three and then we took first place!! Our group was amazing! The next day was thursday which was the variety show, music program and testimony meeting. It was one of the best days! The variety show went very well, there were a lot of great acts! After that we had dinner and stuff and then it was the testimony meeting. I cried like a baby the whole time! Especially when people in our group went up. After testimony meeting we all just went outside and hung out. That night Kristie, Erin, and I went and hung out with some of Kristie's friends that lived near us. It was pretty fun we just went to a park and played cops and robbers. Before we left Aunt Mary's house she told us our curfew was 2am! We ended up coming home at 12 but still it was really cool how she gave us that late of a curfew! Friday was a good day but it was a bummer because it was the last day. We took a ton of pictures and did an awesome service project! We colored houses for kids! Haha it was really fun. Then we had another dance. We were taught the fox trot and tripple step earlier in the week so we had a dance off. I took best female dancer in the fox trot and a girl and a guy from our company took best couple in the triple step! Our company really was the best! :) After the dance we watched a slide show made by the awesome Ryan, who was a counselor. He was so cool! Every time I danced with this one kid in our company he would always sing directly to us! We even tried going out in the hall so he couldn't see us...that didn't work...he just followed us out there haha it was so funny! After the slide show our director Sister Shupe gave us some final words and then we did an address exchange with everyone! Then we said good-bye to everyone which was really sad. But it was one of the best weeks ever! It was so much fun and I learned a lot! I met some really cool people and bonded with my cousins!

San Diego

This past week my sisters and I went to san diego to visit our dad. It was way fun we went to a couple movies and just hung out. We went to star trek and it was very cool! It had some pretty intense scenes! We also saw Up!. It was so cute and really funny. While we were at my dad's we went to my stepmom's work. It's called Dicks Last Resort. It is this restraunt were the waitors are mean to you and you have napkin fights with your neighbor tables haha it was way fun. The food wasn't very great but the atmosphere was. While we were there our stepmom Alex gave us a appetizer whithout telling us what it was. Turns out, it was alligator! It was actually way good. It taste just like chicken. It was funny because we all ate some but once McKenna found out it was alligator she decided she didn't like it anymore and stopped eating. It was funny. Other then that we just hung out at the house, played card games, video games, and watched movies. The only bad part was that I practically got eaten alive by bugs! In just two days I had 27 bug bites. By the end of the week I had 29 - but some left and others came in different places. Not. Fun. I'm over it though! Saturday morning we went to the Big Kitchen for breakfast. It is just this cute little restruant by my dad's house with super big pancakes and really good food! That was a nice morning pick me up. Now we are back in Utah with our cousins Erin and Tory. They are coming up with me to EFY next week. I'm really excited for that!

Youth Conference

Today I went to a youth conferent service project. It was a lot of work, but a whole lot of fun to. We met at the stake center at 8am! Had breakfast then my group and another group went to the Washington Recreational Center and put some rocks in the ground haha. After that everyone went to this family's house where the dad has colon cancer and it is worsening. He doesn't have a back yard really for his kids so we gave him a whole backyard along with a clean and trimmed front yard. We started by painting a fort for the kids, digging a hole in the ground for their trampoline, and getting some weeds and debris out of the way. We did a lot of things in a short amount of time. We put grass in, a sprinkler system in, a fort, grass, gravel, plants, got rid of all the weeds, trimmed the bushes and grass out front, mowed the lawn, washed windows, and just cleaned up everything. It was so cool when the family came driving in and we were all cheering and stuff. Only the mom knew what was going on so everyone was surprised - especially the little kids. Their whole family started crying and it was really cool. It was a fun and long day but well worth it.

This morning Kylie moved. It was really weird saying good bye to her before I left. I know we will see each other again and stuff because she isn't moving far away but it still sucks to know that I can't just see her whenever or talk to her whenever I would like to. I was pretty sad on my way to the stake center but I pulled it together! Hopefully I get to see her soon!