Donating my hair...

I do not remember the exact date of me donating my hair... but I do know that it was around October or November of 2007. I decided that I was sick of my hair style and so I was just going to cut it all off. I had never colored my hair before so I decided that I would donate it to "Locks of Love". I went to a salon and we measured it and she cut it.

The problem was that she measured to the spot and put a hair elastic around it BUT then she cut above the elastic! So I only wanted 10 inches cut of, which was the minimum allowed, but somehow it ended up measuring 14 inches!! That's right... 14 inches of my hair, GONE! It was totally crazy! But being my hair... it didn't take long to grow back at all. It was such an amazing experience to donate my hair to someone I knew would love it more than I did.

Lagoon.

One of my favorite things to do in Utah is go to Lagoon! It is like the only amusement park we've got! I have only been about 5 times but it is always a ton of fun! I remember going in Junior High for 8th grade day, we went for science haha. I remember talking about roller-coasters and we had to study them even though we just went and played. We also went to Lagoon for 9th grade day! And for Senior Sluff day! Lagoon is just an all around awesome place to go.... and it's probably the only cool place to go in Utah.

This particular Blog post is about our trip to Lagoon for my Dad's work party. My dad just got a new job and at this job they have parties... my kind of work!! Haha so they pay for you and a guest to go to this party. Then you can purchase extra tickets. So my dad paid for me, spence, and matt to go with him! (Mike's still on the mission). We went on August 11, 2010! It was a blast!

This is one of my all time favorite pictures!! It is of us kids on the Rocket! It is a ride that shoots you up into the air and then drops you immediately once you reach the top! My mom, being the awesome photographer she is, just pointed the camera at the top of the ride and took the picture when she saw it pass by... and she caught us right at the top, right when we switched motions (from going up to going down) and Spencer's face is my very favorite thing!!! Oh man just the best ever! I am just smiling being so happy, spencer is in such pain, and matt has absolutely no expression!

What a fun day! We just spent the day together and went and rode the rides. I love doing things with my family. They are so much fun to be around and we always have a good time no matter what we are doing!

lagoon.

San Francisco.

Oh SAN FRANCISCO! Every other year my dad's side of the family has a big family reunion. It also rotates through the siblings on who plans and coordinates the vaction. Well this year my dad's brother Alan was in charge and he decided to go to San Francisco. This vacation took place in June of 2007! We stayed in these two houses right by the ocean. The roads to get there were unreal! Let me just tell you. They were so windy and twisty that almost everyone got carsick. When we got there my grandma wouldn't leave because she didn't want to drive the roads again.

We did a lot of really cool things on this vacation. One of them was we spent a day in downtown San Francisco. This picture is of us waiting to catch the trolley. It was such a cool thing. We road the trolley car into China Town actually. And we ate at this place that I will never ever forget. It was like old time "real" Chinese food. The people walked around with carts with really random food on it and then they would ask you if you wanted a plate or two. If you took it they would just write on your "card/receipt" that you took it. The stuff on the plates was crazy. I cannot even describe it. I can just say that I was starving when we got there and all I ate was half a glass of water.

We also did a lot of other things while in town that day. We went to this little "mall" and went into all of these cool little shops. My favorite was the Ghirardelli chocolate factory! They gave us a whole chocolate for free! It was even my very favorite kind... caramel!! Oh man it was sooo good. It was fresh from the factory and just melted in my mouth!

We also went to this really cute little cupcake bakery. It cost like $4 for one cupcake! So we got two and split them with the fam. They were really cute and delicious... but a cupcake is never worth $4 in my opinion! We also visited a bakery that made all sorts of breads... you could go around and look at the machines that made the bread. We ate there for lunch... I got a sandwich and split it with momma! Then for dinner we all ate at the Rainforest Cafe. Which is always a blast! All-in-all the day in town was my favorite part of the trip!

Another thing we decided to do was go to Alcatraz. This is a picture of us on a boat ride on our way over there. As you can see... it was really cold and windy! But it was super interesting. They gave you headphones that plugged into a cassette player and you would walk through the jail and listen to the tape. It was one of the creepiest, scariest, most interesting things I have ever done! I loved it!

The most epic thing we did was visit the Golden Gate Bridge! It was SO cool. We only walked half way and then walked back. But it was seriously one of the coolest things I have done. It is a HUGE bridge! Let me tell you. I felt like I walked 5 miles and I was probably pretty close. So this is the picture my dad took of us when we were half way across the bridge and then we decided to head back.

Here we are at the beginning of the bridge. Yes Matt is looking very cute with his tongue sticking out. My family is very good at not taking one good picture! Haha oh and this is the picture Spencer got his profile picture from for Facebook. And it has been his profile picture for the past 3 or so years! He says "It's my sexy picture" haha good times!

We also did a lot of cool things back at the houses. They were right on the bay of the ocean. There was an inlet that was basically shut off from the ocean and it was fresh water. Don't ask me how that is even possible but it was. It was really cool! And the houses came with these kayaks. So we went and played in the water and it was a ton of fun! This is a picture of me and Spence coming back from our kayak adventure. And that is the "dock" that is right up against the house.

We also did some playing on the beach! We had awesome kites and since it is so windy there we flew them quite a bit. This is a picture of my dad being my dad and of course holding the kite in the exact right place so the octopuses "legs" are whipping us in the face! Oh how I love my daddy!

This is a picture of me attempting to fly the kite. I love having my picture taken as everyone knows so this is me smiling seriously for the camera. Look at that joy! Haha I am not a good kite flyer is what I discovered on this trip of ours! I would run up and down the beach as fast as my legs would let me and the kite would just slide across the sand... it wouldn't go in the air for me. So my dad would get it in the air and let me hold the rope! What a nice man!

This picture is of the whole crew! (Mike's on his mission) It was such an awesome vacation! I did and saw a lot of things that I believe someone should see sometime in their lifetime! I would love to go back to San Fransisco someday. There is so much history and just cool things there. Overall, it was a very successful family vacation.

san francisco.

Girls Camp.

Girls camp is something I have always loved! Every year our stake went up to Camp Shalom. It is a place in the mountain that has been dedicated by the church specifically for girls camp! We sleep in "cabins"... more like "A framed" sheds! I always slept on a cot. There were bathrooms but you could not shower in them. So you would go a week without showering... the true side of camping! Girls camp was a place to learn cool skills and also to grow spiritually. I learned a lot about first aid and we had cool competitions as a stake. I also learned a lot about the gospel through firesides and scripture study in the mountain. You were not allowed to bring any electronics and so it was a great opportunity to be away from the world and be still.

My mom took this picture of me getting off of the bus!

Yes that is me striking a pose on the stairs!

The best part about it was that my mom went with me every year. I went 7 years to girls camp! I was a leader my last year. My dad came up my last year when I was a leader which was a blast to have him up there! The weather was different every year. Depending on when you went, the weather was different. One year we had about 5 girls faint from heat stroke and the next year we got snowed in!

Girls Camp was full of hiking, service, and crafts! The picture above is of Stacy and me. We were eating lunch in the middle of a hike/service project. As you can tell it was a nice day. The service project was moving trees! Camp Shalom got some kind of bug and they had to cut down a TON of trees. So our job was to go and move them out of the way of the trails. We are sitting on a bunch of the trees in the picture.

Girls camp was always a blast! I grew so close to the girls in my ward and always had a ton of fun! We had themes and colors which made it super fun! So we would dress up and deck out every day! In the above picture... as you can see... our color was orange. We were "builders" building the kingdom or something like that! It was so much fun! I had a blast all 7 years and I look forward to hopefully being able to go again sometime in the future as a leader!

girls camp.

Mike's Mission...

Mike kept the fact that he was going to serve a mission a secret for a very long time. It seemed like it was such a huge surprise when we got the letter in the mail. Mike decided to throw a big party and invite a bunch of people over when he opened his letter. The party was

March 14, 2007.

This is a picture of Mike, our cousin Kristi, and me looking at his letter. He got called to serve in the CHILE RANCAGUA MISSION. We were so excited! This means that his dream came true of wanting to learn Spanish!

The day he left was one of the hardest days of my life. Mike and I had never been very close through out our lives. But when he moved to college we grew really close and became best of friends. Then, he had to leave and go on a mission! I was so sad, but I knew that what he was doing was right! My family has always been really close and so I knew it was going to be hard on all of us.

Mike entered the MTC on May 30, 2007. The MTC was a killer haha. We got there and it was all good, we checked him in and put his badge on... what an amazing experience! Then came the "devotional". They gathered everyone into a room and we sang a song, watched a movie, and then talked about missoinary work. I remember the opening song was "Called To Serve", I started balling! It was so intense haha. I remember after it was over Mike went down the line and hugged all of us. We were all crying. I had never seen my brothers cry, it was a touching experience. Then there was a door that had "future missionary" on the top of it and a door that said "family" on top of it. The missionary went his way and we went ours. I remember watching Mike walk away and feeling the Spirit so strong!

Mike serving a mission was an incredible experience for my family. We all grew very close and had tremendous blessings because of it. I am so grateful that Mike chose to serve a mission. He is an amazing example to me and to my family and I love him dearly.

mike's mission.

Student Council...

Back in 9th grade when I decided to stop dancing, I chose to run for Student Council. I didn't make it although I was really close. The teacher in charge told me that I was his number 1 pick but the others chose 5 other people... so I was not chosen. But I decided that since I was almost done with High School and I still wanted to get involved, I chose to run again for a position my Senior Year.

I remember looking at the board with everyone's name on it and trying to decide what position I was going to run for. I thought that Senior Class would be a ton of fun because I would be involved for the rest of my life. So I noticed that I had a friend on every position. So I knew that I was going to have to run against one of my friends. I first signed up for Senior Class Secretary but then one of my great friends Jennie Hanson decided to run for Secretary and so I decided to switch and run for Senior Class Historian. This means that I was running against my friend Caitlin Ainge.

I was so excited about running for Student Council. I made cool signs and a movie and everything. My slogan was...

Shake Your Money Maker and Vote for Ali Baker

I thought it was so cleaver. I also used the song "Shake Your Money Maker." I gave out papers that said that on them and then I taped a gold chocolate coin to them. So creative I know... Anyways, for the election they split us up into teams. We were narrowed down to two people per position and then they split us up to one per team. Teams were hard but SO much fun! We became a family. We had to do a ton... We made T-shirts, dressed up, made a huge poster, made a display for the glass case, did a dance at an assembly and much more. I was personally in charge of the glass case. Our theme for our group was....

NEWSIES

We went and took a whole bunch of pictures and these were for me to put up in the glass case. We took a big group shot and then individuals and I put our names and positions next to them.

This is the big group shot.

And this is my individual shot.

We had a ton of fun! We seriously spent every waking moment together! We would start right when school got out and would end around 11 at night. I remember that the night before the big poster was due we pulled an all nighter! I was exhausted but it was all worth it!

This is a picture of me and some teammates coming home in the car after taking pictures!

After it was all said and done we had a huge assembly after school. They invited everyone and it was mostly the contestants and their parents. It was in the gym and they were going to announce who won. They used skits to tell who won and they did it by using some part of their name in the skit. My mom recorded mine and here it is...

I was so excited!! I couldn't believe that I won! I remember thinking that all of my hard work had paid off!

This is my dad and me after I won!

Student Council was my dream! I knew that I would be able to go places in life because of it... It might even help me get a scholarship someday! I loved every minute of Student Council and all of the things that I learned from it!

student council.

Car Crash...

On the morning of January 20, 2007 I did not have a good experience... and 4 days after my birthday might I add! Well I had an early morning work meeting at The Hoge! I was driving home after the meeting and it was morning and about 2 degrees outside! I was driving past the church just south of Harmons going the speed limit of 35.

I was cruising along and all of a sudden I see this car pull out in front of me, out of no where! Before I knew it I slammed right into the side of the car! I hit it head on, T-boned it! Both cars ended up smashing into a bush in someones front yard! The old lady had thought it was a 4way stop and pulled out in front of me! I remember just starting to cry. I couldn't think. I got out of the car and went and sat on the curb. I looked up and the Jeep was trashed. The other lady's car's windows had shattered, but no one was hurt!

The old lady came up to me and said "This is all my fault! I am so sorry. I wasn't paying close enough attention." I just told her that it was ok and that accidents happen. I called my dad right away and the other lady called the cops. Soon my dad got there and we talked about it. I had to explain it to the cops and I gave them my identification and insurance stuff.

It was SO cold outside and so I was shaking out of control. The cop told me to go and sit in his car. I actually got locked in haha because I closed the door! When my dad got there he came over and sat inside with me and... closed the door! Haha we were both trapped in the car! Good times! There were some witnesses and it wasn't my fault.

I was clear!

This is the Jeep all banged up! It is totaled! I was SO upset because I loved that car! This is the Jeep at the shop after it had been towed! I felt SO bad about breaking the car. I remember that being my very first thought after it happened, I ruined the car and my parents are going to be so disappointed!

This is the Jeep's front light... BROKEN! Way sad. I remember the car smoking and freaking out about it! Not a good day. The good part was I wasn't hurt at all. My neck was a little sore afterwards but that was it! I was mostly scared of driving and had nightmares about it for a while! Now whenever I approach a 2 way stop I slow down and look both ways! Driving is an awesome thing but at times can be very scary! I learned that day to not trust old lady's... haha just kidding! I learned to always be cautious because you never know what could happen!

car crash.