When I got back to the good ol' USA my family took me to St. George! It was nice weather and so much fun! My niece Addie is getting so big, and she is so much fun to play with! All of the girls went to Vegas to shop, go to dinner, and go to the PHANTOM OF THE OPERA!! It was so cool! What a good weekend with the fam :)

Welcome to the Jungle...

After Ecuador I had the opportunity to go to the Yachana Lodge in the Amazon! It was such a cool experience! We flew to Cokee in an airplane that was really small! We then took a jungle truck to the Napo river. While we were waiting for our canoe/boat I started feeding some monkeys and they jumped right on my shoulder! We got to go on many hikes through the jungle and saw many different Jungle animals!! Bats, tarantulas, the harpy eagle, dwarf camens, HUGE spiders, bats, hawks...etc. We also got to FLOAT DOWN THE RIVER! We were just floating with the paranas and anacondas...no big deal :) We went to the medicine man and got cleansed with tobacco and learned how to throw spears and shoot blow guns. The whole experience was the coolest thing I have ever been able to do!

I love Ecuador!

Hello everyone! Have no fear I am back to the blogging world! I just spend the past three months having the most wonderful time of my life! I was living in Cuenca, Ecuador working in many different orphanages! I fell in love all of these children and got very attached to quite a few of them! It was the hardest thing to leave them. This blog is a tribute to my babies! :) I love you! Oh and PLEASE...if you are even slightly interested in going to Ecuador to do this they are in need of volunteers! You would not regret it! Also, if you are looking for ways to help these orphans but don't know how, contact me! You can sponsor a child for only 30 dollars a month for a year! What a wonderful thing to do :)

Hola from Ecuador! To do a blog here takes FOREVER, because the internet is slow. I am going to do one for this first time, but if you want to see all of my pictures I put them all on facebook! There are a lot :) Ecuador is great...the whole traveling experience was not the best. I have never had so many delays or had to wait in such long lines in my life! My casa here in Ecuador isn't bad! I live with 16 girls, my Cuenca parents, and the head family is here visiting with their 4 kids. It is crazy, and there is always something going on! I work a lot in the orphanages and keep busy! I was pretty homesick at first, but I am starting to get the hang of it! It is hard because of the language barrier, but hopefully I will overcome that soon! I know enough words right now to get by, I just can't communicate like a normal person! There are a lot of hand gestures, thats for sure! I have about 10 weeks left...my first week is already done! This is me and my parents before I left on my way to Ecuador! The other picture is supposed to be of me and Tyler...but seriously it is hard to get the right picture because its all in Spanish! I don't even know the word for delete...so it is staying! The picture is of the sign that went on our doll...the Ecuador people burn a doll when it is New Years to burn old bad things that happened to them! We burned our ex's...and we wrote down bad habits we have and burned those too. It was an exciting night! I have never seen so many fireworks in my life! We were not allowed to go out on the town because it wasn't safe at all! But family and friends, I love you all and I am doing ok! It is scary and different than the US. I am happy to be here to help these children. I love working with the special kids...there are almost 20 that we are working with, and than the casas kids, cunas babies, OSSO babies, HML girls and ladies...and than a couple other orphanages that I have not been to. I will be putting my pictures on facebook from now on...so be ready!! :) Love you all!

We had two formal nights, and on the first one we did family pictures. Everybody was dressed in black, and it was so much fun to get all dressed up!

This is my cousin Jenny and I.

Sisters!

The family. We are so funny :)

There was a lot of entertainment going on throughout the whole trip! On the ship days we played all of the sports and was involved in everything that we could. We were soon known on the ship as 'Utah'! That is my family for you, always trying to be the center of attention! ;) Isn't it great.

Jonny and I were the team captains for 'The Quest'. We had to do all sorts of crazy things to win, and don't worry, we won GOLD! I never would have expected less out of us. Together, we shall never lose! It was kind of embarasses the things we had to do in order to achieve gold, because all family members were present including the Parentals. It was all worth it in the end, however. :)

I enjoyed hanging out with my cousin Ry Guy...USU forever...we went to the Jesters Club and danced with the black people, and we always had a grand time together!

When we got off the cruise ship we went back to Peurto Rico and went to some forts! They were really cool, and had really pretty views! This is my sweet grandparents, oh how I love them!

The cruise was an amazing vacation! I loved being with my family!!

Caribbean Cruisin!

This was our first night on the cruise ship. We started off by playing as 'Team Johnson' against a bunch of Peurto Ricans...if thats how you call them...it was so hot and humid! And so much fun! We than did the whole 'if the ship sinks' thing with the life vests! This is some of the fam watching us cruise along. Also, everyday they changed the elevator to what day it was! We tried to get a picture of it every single day! It was fun for the first four days...and than we kept forgetting.

On the cruise we went to Aruba, Curacau, St. Maartin, and St. Thomas! They were all wonderful islands! It was my second time to St. Maartin and St. Thomas. In Aruba we went on a bus tour. It was kind of rainy. We saw the missionaries and met a member that lives in Aruba! We played beach volleyball! We went shopping, and than sat in the hot tub while the rain poored down. It was awesome!

Caracau was my favorite island! We got to ride scooters and buggy things! Poor Annie got the privelage of driving with me and since it had rained the day before, there were prime mud puddles! We went through all of them and got so muddy! We than went to the prettiest beach ever! There was a thing you could swim out to in the middle of the ocean, and the water was soo blue! It was a wonderful day!

The next island was St. Maartin! We went zipping through the mango trees! It was the coolest thing, we got all harnessed up and than they let you go zip through! There are rope challenges between zipping as well, it was so cool. This is the nice man that harnessed me up.

In St. Maartin we went to the prettiest beach I have ever seen. It was called Coki beach. It was nice to lay out and read my book. I also got to snorkel with Jordan! All of the islands were SO BEAUTIFUL!!!

Caribbean Cruisin!

Over Thanksgiving Break I got to go on a cruise!!! My whole entire family went, and it was a crazy blast! We left the Saturday before Thanksgiving, and returned the next Monday. This is Jordan and in the airport getting breakfast before the big trip! We started this eating trip off with Burger King. And we didn't stop eating the whole trip! haha...it was so much fun! :) Jordan was proud of his Minute Maid.

This is some of the fam waiting to board our plane in SLC. We had a layover in Texas and than flew on our way to Peurto Rico!!!

After arriving in Peurto Rico we stayed in a hotel and went to a little Mexican Cafe thing. It was raining and so windy! Rach and I decided to take a model picture because the wind was blowing, and this is the picture! I love it :)

In the morning it was crazy! Traveling with 29 people is always an adventure! This is some of our luggage. The ride to the ship was an experience, the driver didn't speak English but he sure knew how to sing and shake his muraccas! The day was starting off wonderfully :)