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.

high school dances...

High school dances were pretty much the best things ever! Since I grew up in good old Orem Utah we always asked in crazy ways. I got to go to quite a few dances and they were a ton of fun! All of our dances had theme songs and we would go cool places! I loved dances in high school!

The first dance I want to talk about is Sophomore Prom. I went with Dalin Parker. I may or may not have worn the same dress as when I went with Jarik to Preference... but my mom and grandma actually changed the ribbons on the dress, so it looked totally different haha anyways, one day after school I walked out to my car and it was trashed! It had ketchup, mustard, chocolate syrup, fish bait, etc. on it! Dalin had asked me to Prom! I was so excited but I knew that I was going to have to get him back when I answered him.

As you can see from the picture above... I got him back! I shredded billions of papers, newspapers, etc and ended up with about 4 huge black garbage bags full! Dalin drove a big maroon van and I was scared it wasn't even going to make a dent. So he always left it unlocked.... his bad in the first place. So one night my friend Lauren Craig and I went and dumped all of he shredded papers in his van! It rocked my socks, let me just tell you!

This is a picture of me and Dalin at Prom. The theme was "This Moment Forever". Prom was March 18, 2006... I believe! It was at the huge Wells Fargo building in Salt Lake! We drove up there in Dalin's nice truck. We were in a pretty big group and it was a blast!

Yay Sophomore Prom!

The next dance I wish to talk about is Junior Homecoming with Kyle Kocherhands. This dance had a lot of drama in the asking. I went to a play with my friend Evan Monson and when I got home there were two bowls in my room, both with notes. The first one was of fortune cookies and the second one had sour patches in them. I went and asked my mom what they were from because I was so confused... she said that I got asked to Homecoming twice... within 10 minutes of eachother mind you! So yeah, talk about drama.

I decided to choose by which one asked me first and that was Kyle. He asked me by sour patches he said, "I know we've had our sour patches but will you go to Homecoming with me." Me and Kyle had liked eachother for a while but we just never got the timing write... So I was SO excited that he asked me! I loved the kid!

This is a picture of me and Kyle before the dance. It was a blast! I even wore these awesome light up shoes. They were like crystal kind of... they were even high heals! I thought that they were the coolest thing ever haha and since Kyle is tall, I needed to wear high heals! Such a fun date and dance!

Yay Junior Homecoming!

Junior Prom was interesting...! I went with Nick Houston. He is hilarious! I don't remember much about this date but I do remember that we went paint-balling for the day date and I had welts all over my body for the dance haha. We went over to his friend Mitch's house and the guys had made dinner. It was really cute. Then we went to Prom in a limo and it was at the Provo Library.

This is a picture of my cute dress! I love this dress because it is red and also because it has polka-dots which I love! After the dance we went back over to Mitch's house and watched Finding Nemo on his driveway. Yes, in my Prom dress. I fell asleep and when I woke up it was 4 in the morning... I made Nick drive me home right away and he didn't even walk me to the door... kinda a bust of a Prom but oh well... life goes on.

Yay Junior Prom!

My very favorite dance in high school was Senior Homecoming with Eric Richins. He asked me by a "phone hunt" if you will. He came over with friends and sang a song and then gave me a sheet of paper with a number on it. I called that number and they gave me another number, they gave me another number, I ended up calling like 10 numbers haha and the last one made me guess! It was such a cute idea! He is such an awesome kid and it was a blast! I actually planned this dance because I was on Student Council. So my parents were there serving food and it was a ton of fun! It was held at a golf course on the other side of Utah Lake. It was really pretty!

This is a picture of my dad and me before the dance! I really liked this dance because I put a ton of work into it. It was my first dance I had ever planned and it took a lot of time. I also went with one of my best friends and there was no drama! We just had a ton of fun. We had an awesome group that was a lot of fun as well! Awesome date.

Yay Homecoming!

The last dance I went to in High School was Senior Preference with Chris Haines. So you guessed it... I did not get asked to Senior Prom which was kind of a bummer but oh well! So Preference was a ton of fun! I actually was on the committee for this dance as well! This meant it was free! So I knew I had to go! I decided to ask a really sweet guy in my home ward, the bishop's son actually! And we had an awesome time!

This is a picture of dad and me before the dance... dad blinked haha. This has to be my very FAVORITE picture of us! I just love it... So yeah Preference was a blast. We went to Carrabba's for dinner and it was delicious! We had a huge group because it was like all of Student Council girls in one big group! My parents also came to this dance which made it extra awesome! It was held out in Lehi at a golf course! It was really hard to find a place to hold it and this was the last place we found.. it was actually really small and we were so worried about it. But it actually made the dance so much better because we were all so cramped but we made the best of it and just had a huge party!

Yay Preference!

high school dances.

Marching Band.

The summer of 2007 is one to remember. I remember missing dance more then anything and just wishing I could do something. Then I got news that they were starting the very first marching band ever at Timpanogos High School. They came to me and asked me if I wanted to be a part of and help start the first Dance Guard. Of course I jumped on the band wagon!

Dance Guard was one of the strangest things I had ever done... but also a ton of fun. I remember learning how to twirl the flag and my favorite... the gun. It was awesome because I was learning a lot of things. There were only 4 of us and so it was pretty easy. We mostly danced and then used the props on the side. It was actually pretty hard because there were so many positions and we had to be in the exact right spot. It was a lot to remember but it was fun.

Our marching band was actually really good. We always took first in our competitions. We did compete in one A though because it was so small and was our first year as a marching band. It was cool to go to competitions and stuff. Above is a picture of one of our competitions... sorry it is so small... it is bad quality. But marching band was an adventure. My favorite memory is band camp... yes I went to band camp haha. We actually had it at an army base! We even got to stay in the barracks, which was awesome. I got into awesome shape because we ran all of the time!

Even though I get made fun of a lot for being in the band, I am so glad that I did it. I learned a lot. I learned about interacting with other people and I expanded my friend base by a lot. The people in the band were so nice! I also dated one of the drummers, Matt Wald. We held hands and cuddled a couple of times :) haha anyways, it was a lot of fun! And I was a part of Timpanogos' first marching band!

marching band.

Lake Powell.

Almost every single year since I was little my family has taken a summer trip to Lake Powell. I have always looked forward to and loved our family trips to Lake Powell. When I was little we would stay in a hotel and then make a day camp on a beach. It was a ton of fun! We would go down with different family's and would just have a blast! It was a fun way to get out of Orem and take a trip down south.

When I was in about 8th or 9th grade, my family decided to purchase a house boat. We went in on a share with the Blaylocks. The boat's name was $um-R-fun. It was a pretty big boat. We were given one week out of the year, which was the end of July, beginning of August. It was a ton of fun! Each of the kids could bring a friend and we would go park it on a beach. We would stay there all week long and sleep on top of the houseboat!

I have many memories of this boat. One of my favorites is jumping off the top of the house boat. We would do crazy tricks and have competitions. There was also a slide which was a lot of fun. Another memory I have is my brother Mike waking up at the crack of dawn and going wakeboarding when the water was glass. It was beautiful to be out on the lake and watch the sun rise over the red rocks. Another memory I have is tubing. The Baker's are champion tubers. If it was a sport, we would take state! My dad is amazing at pulling tubes behind the boat! I loved every moment of that!

This is a picture of Lake Powell one year. We went with the Babb's and they brought "The Molecule". It was awesome! It is a huge tube that you pull behind the boat, but we mainly used it to play king of the hill. It was a ton of fun! I have countless memories of Lake Powell. My family decided to sell our houseboat last year (2009) and I was so upset! I miss it. I will always remember all the family trips to...

Lake Powell.