I agree...

This is what the totally reliable quiz online said so I should probably follow it...

You Should Spend Your Summer at the Beach

You're a free spirit who is always thinking of new ways to have fun. And you don't just love summer... you live for it. So, you really should blow off your responsibilities and head to the beach!

Where Should You Spend Your Summer?

Country USA

I got back last night from Wisconsin where I was working for my dad running camera at Country USA. It's this huge country music festival that lasts for 5 days and had over 175,000 people come through this year. My dad is in charge of taping the bands that then goes on the 2 screens so that everyone can see who is performing. It's a lot of fun to hang out with my dad for those 5 days and then crew that goes is always a lot of fun. We had a bit of an adventure this year when the farmer who lives behind the site was pissed about the noise and decided to get back at the festival owner by shooting his rifle during one of the breaks. It was really freaky because no one really knew what was going on and it freaked me right out for sure. But they caught him and all his shooting friends. It was lots of fun though even though I'm pretty sure I've heard enough country music for awhile...

Here's the crew...
and the festival site from the air...

Who not What

So far this summer has been defined more by who I've been with rather than what I've been doing this summer. Coming out of this year of school I knew that what my heart, my mind, my soul needed was some rest and refreshment...and so far I have found that in these past few weeks. I was at Jason Stocker's concert last Tuesday night sitting at a table with my Mom, Tate, Michele, Kristen, Debbie, Gloria, Janelle, and others and I was overwhelmed by this room packed with people who I have known for so long and it just felt good to all be there together. I had this image of all these little strings connecting people and representing this community that we have somehow built. And then the sad thing is that we are getting more and more spread out. I guess this is more of a comment on how I few my circle of friends and how frustrated I am that plane tickets separate me from so many people that I love so much and who I want to do life with. I know that one thing that is scary to me about graduating from seminary is the thought of moving somewhere based on the position that is offered when really what I would want to do is move somewhere with my friends and do life together...idealistic I know but it would be cool.

Next week my Aunt Carol and cousins Landon and Laura are coming out so that we can all celebrate my Grandparents 60th anniversary. It's really just so great to have grandparents that are still around and involved in our lives and I think it's amazing that they have been married this long!

Then the week after that I'm packing in a great trip that involved lots of time with some people who make me a better person for sure. I'm heading out to Kansas with Tate and some junior high girls and while they are at camp I will fly to Florida to see Matt, Melissa, Bryce, and Lily Christensen and spend the 4th of July there. Then at the end of the week I will come back to Kansas City to stay with Drew, Lindsey, and Elijah Osborne for a few days. Linz and Melissa I can't wait to see a bit of your worlds!

I love the people in my life...

Summer so far

Life is pretty relaxed and a bit random these days, but the rest and the refreshing change of pace feels really great. Here are a few highlights of the past few weeks...

A week ago we went to one of Ben's rehearsals for their summer tour. One of the things that Ben has started to do for their tours is to help design the look of the stage with the lights and set and everything and this tour is the biggest visual set they have had yet. As proud as I always am of Ben, it was so amazing to see what he helped do with this tour. Another thing about watching them that night that I appreciated was that they are doing their cover of "hips don't lie" on their show and when they play they song it just makes me laugh so dang hard. Way to go Ben, we can't wait to watch you rock it at red rocks in August! ( this is a picture of one of the "looks" of their show)





Along the lines of concerts, Sophie and I kicked of the summer concert season with the John Mayer / Ben Folds show at Red Rocks Friday night. Soph had been sick the day before the show but she pulled herself together enough to go see her BFF John. We had lots of fun, and it was a beautiful night to enjoy red rocks (I freakin love that place). Here are a few pictures from our night...



















One last thing is that Sophie left on Saturday for her missions trip to Alaska. She was really excited and we are really excited for her. She was feeling a little sick when they left but I think that she will pull it together and hopefully have a really great week. This will totally sound like a pathetic big sister, but sometimes in my mind she is still 5 so the fact that she is on her first missions trip is really weird and really cool. Here's us at the airport...we are weird...

I will probably have more adventures to tell you about soon!

1,153 miles

As of Sunday night I am now back at home in Colorado for the summer. Last week my dear, fake sister, Ms. Amanda Tate, flew out to Chicago and made the drive back with me. We left Chi-town on Friday and after a few added stops we rolled into Denver Sunday night...1,153 miles later! (Here's a picture of Tate with Soph and my Mom so that you know who the heck I'm talking about)


Friday night we stopped in St Louis and stayed with Tate's parents and I got the tour of all the hot Kirkwood spots including Ted Drews (yummy custard!) and every school that Amanda went to growing up. Saturday we continued the trip and made our way to Lawrence KS where we stopped and visited a bunch of Amanda's friends from college. I had this sudden jealousy while walking around the campus of KU with her of the fact that they went to this huge University with an awesome campus and good sports teams. So here's a picture of me pretending to graduate (they all walk through this tower thing on their way down to the stadium...I think you get it).


After catching the second service at her old church on Lawrence we started out for the last leg of our journey to Denver. This last day was the longest and the most boring by far (no offense Tate, well a little offense...). So to pass the time we made our way through the atlas figuring out how many states each of us has been in and how many states we have slept in (there is a big difference!) Here's the final count...Amanda has been in 27 states, and has slept in 24 states...Angie has been in 41 states and has slept in 31 states.

We also made a list of things that we want to accomplish this summer. Here's the list so far...
* Go to Pike's Peak
* Go to Rocky Mountian National Park
* Go to a "Film on the Rocks" (that's a movie at red rocks)
* Go to Wyoming (that would raise Tate's state count)
* Hike to St. Mary's Glacier and sled down it
* Eat at Tuk Tuk
* Go to El Salvador (Tate will be the only one to accomplish this one)
* Go camping
* Go sledding at the alpine slide at heritage square
So that's the list, maybe we are being ambitious but it could be fun. Any suggestions of things we should add to the list?

I have the rest of this week as "vacation" and then I start babysitting on Monday and then who knows what after that. I'm just happy that it is summer!

Done and Done

On friday I took my last final for the semester and it felt great. I am now %50 percent done with my degree which also feels really great. I celebrated on friday by going to the Cubs vs. White Sox game with good friend Jen Zerby. Sitting there watching the game I realized that I had no homework and yes that felt really great as well. As you can tell, this weekend has felt great as I have relaxed and let myself unwind a bit after this semester. Now I just have to wait and see if I passed everything...haha (nervous laughter). Along thos lines, the funniest part of this week was memorizing acrostics to remember which judges and kings are which books of the Bible. For instance the one for 2 Samuel was "MJBAAZ" which I remembered by thinking that Mary J Blige was in the book of 2 Samuel (get it...MJB, Mary J Blige)...lets just say it was time for the semester to be over.

Tonight I went out with Luke and Chrissy Palmerlee, Jeff G, and Kyle and Alicia Quackenbush to celebrate Jeff G's graduation from Seminary and Alicia Quackenbush's graduation from Nursing school. It was fun to hang out with them and to give Jeff his box of cards from everyone. And did I mention that I don't have any homework?...:)

So I am babysitting mon, tue, wed of this week and then heading back to Colorado on Friday. Tate (my favorite fake sister!) is flying out here on thursday to help me drive back home (after a few stops to visit come peeps along the way). The plan for the summer is to be at home in Colorado and babysit for 2 different families and not do homework...

See Ya...

All of the undergrads are done with finals and moving out tomorrow. It all makes me just a little sad because... a) I'm super jealous and want to be done with my finals (fyi...I only have 2 papers, a presentation, 2 finals, and a theological reflection module to go!), b) it reminds me of moving out of anderson and my lund apartment and of graduating and all those weird transitions, and c) it means that we had our last small group tonight. This is one of the best small groups that I've ever been involved with and this group has been one of the best parts of my year for sure! So they are moving out and heading off to their summer adventures but we will be back in the fall (except Laura, who is heading to Italy!) and I can't wait for another year with them.

Jenna, Erica, Laura, Anne, Marissa, and Stefanie

All of us at Christmas

See ya ladies...