apen grove: moose stalking, moose sightings, and a moose attacking..

So I am now typing this by myself, having become a bit more used to my cast, which now is the colors neon yellow and neon green. Aspen grove was finished yesterday, and then we came straight to Lake Powell, which will mean that soon I will lose all reception. Aspen Grove was a hit, and a sweet one at that. While hiking mt. Timpanogos, (11,500 roughly) we saw a large quantity of wildlife, which included moose and mountain goats. The moose we saw in a little plateau on a cliff on our way up, and the moose was minding its own business eating ON THE TRAIL. So after we found the moose, and many pictures were taken, we started inching forward. But lo and behold, the moose was bound to find out sometime, and that happened when we were less than 5 feet from it. The moose then proceeded to start the charge hat was meant to kill or injure severely. Everyone in the group rapidly backed off and after a few moments of indecision, the moose backed off. We were then able to proceed hastily up the plateau.
+ - ~ ` =
This is finished after Lake Powell, but I will not include Lake Powell, but will wait until later, when the pictures are uploaded to proceed in that direction. Now, back to Mt. Timp....
When we were not that far from reaching the saddle, I was getting seriously discouraged and depressed, them, as I was half-heartily silently fighting my Dad to go back, my aunt Paula and my Dad combined to give me strength and to motivate me up. As we were at the saddle, all my energy boosts (my Dad claims that I came to terms with myself and it was all mental) kicked in, and I was in my element. As Paula was laboring from breath, and getting a little discouraged herself, I decided to give back some of that encouragement that helped my so well. When we got to the top, my Dad was slightly disturbed on how well I was feeling and how much energy I had, and proceeded to give me a lot of weight in my backpack. I then proceeded to half-run down the mountain, joking and laughing all the while.
Mt. Timp. wasn't the only thing that happened, Nick Porter also happened. He was an old kindergarten buddy of mine that moved away and after moving a few times, landed in El Paso, Texas. We reconnected and had a fun time. Valerie also got a lot of attention from a general audience of the male gender. The events that have happened as a result of that I will leave for Valerie's discretion on who to tell. All that I will say is that Aspen Grove was a great memorable experience, and the best Aspen Grove I remember!
I leave these tidings with the promise of Lake Powell shortly,

Caroline

the injuries of one soul

Nicole is typing this for reasons soon to be known:

First, I am in Utah. Second, I destroyed my wrist at soccer camp. And third, Nicole likes when I dictate to her... I recently got back from soccer camp at BYU which was way fun, and included some rocking dehydration, blisters (underneath toenails) and injuries. Whilst I was playing soccer, as a goalie, in a game called World Cup (brutal game, I tell you, brutal game) Norway shot a very good goal, and Cara is a center midfielder, so she has a very good kick. mwah haha I quickly went to stop the ball and while slapping away and SAVING THE GOAL, I snapped my wrist back and fractured it. I thought it was nothing, and kept on playing. But as time went on, and lunch came near, i realized it was becoming more painful instead of less painful. So I went to the trainers, and they wrapped me up and gave me some ice, and told me to go to the IPF trainers. After Lunch I went and they told me that they thought it was fractured.... Ok ok so they brought me to the hospital. and i had snapped my wrist in two.... Joyous day! Now I live in a blue cast which reads, "It's my birthday <3>

so for dehydration0-----

it was 90 degrees in the air so it was over 100 degrees on the turf we were playing outside on the turf... everyone was, like, really dehydrated, and we didn't have any subs, and since I didn't have enough "variety of fluids" i passed out on the field from dehydration. fun times..... lets just say I threw up a lot..... fun times again.....

ok well nicole is getting tired of this so she is attacking me/cilesslyr

babies, school, family

Hey everyone SO sorry that I haven't written since march, I can hardly believe that I haven't written for so long. A lot has happened since then, such as school being out and having a new nephew to add to the clan. School got out last month, and the reason why I haven't written since then is partly because I was waiting for Quentin to be born, and since then I haven't had a good excuse apart from the fact that I haven't gotten around to it.

My new nephew and Christopher/Megan's new son has been officially named Quentin John Palmer and was born on July 10, 2009. He was 7 pounds and 1 ounce, very healthy and happy. I will not suply pictures because I think that you should go to Christopher and Megan's blog because they will have more pictures than me by far (seeing as I have not met said Quentin yet).

A lot of family business has been going on, apart from the fact that there is a new soul in our family (that, I might add, has yet to have a threat to his life by my dad, who has been known to comment of eating children :) ), our mom is in Boston helping the kid and the family as in with tradition. Meanwhile, or fragment of the family in California has been partying and doing almost everything we couldn't do with mom in the home, including making cookie dough and eating the whole thing raw without making cookies, eating food she would never eat, watching movies she wouldn't watch with us, etc. The watching movies portion includes the fact that we're going as a 'family' to the midnight showing of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, something that she would never do, partly because no matter what the time of day is, if there is Quittich, she is sleeping. Before she left though, there was a large number of birthday's in June, which included my mom and dad's, Lauren's (just look on her blog 2 posts old and you'll see), and Megan's. In the end of June, the Merill's (cousin's) came and wrecked the usual cousinly havoc, and before that, the Jacobson's came, which meant much screaming by the youngsters of a particularly mellow Hadley because they were stone frightened of her. A joke that I appreciated that Allie cracked a couple days ago when Samantha said that she had met a dog that was more mellow than Hadley was "whoa was it dead?" A true testament on what we think of our lovely lazy dog/bunny/seal/pig. Well I will write once more in July before I'm off for Utah!

Caroline

birthdays, drumline, babies...

Much to talk about, much to talk about!! Where do I begin?? Well, I did have m,y birthday in Feburary and it was a special occasion because 3 of my cousins that i NEVER get to see from Michigan were conveniently located in San Deigo with my grandparents at the time. So
I went with my parents, Samantha, The 3 cousins, and my grandparents to California Adventures (its right next to Disneyland and is an amusment park also). After much fun in the sun and bad times to go on water rides, we headed home. Now throughout this whole time (even a couple of blogs ago), my sister in law (sister really, she fits so perfectly with our family) has been pregnant. I didn't tell you earlier because I was sworn to sercrecy. But the word has already spread so I might as well continue it. Megan is now 6 months pregnant to a very active baby boy. Most call him Q, couple of my friends call him BBQ (beastly baby quentin). But the name descided is Quentin John Palmer. He is very active already, just like his father and loves to move. I look forward with a steadfast eagerness torwards my new to-be nephew. Now we land in march, the ify time between Spring and winter. March in traditionally not a month that I look forward to, the month i call dreary and long, because in boston its usually cloudy, the snow is gross, and it gets in a weird stage of weather. Also there are no school breaks AT ALL in March!! But this year was different, this year was the first year of high school drumline. So two weeks ago was my very first compition and we packed up la Canada and drove our way 7 hours to Union City, which is right next to San Fran. After our failed attempt to go skydiving 3 times, it was time for the show. We had warmed up, everything was looking up, we had had an excellent warm uip, and we were pumped up. So we ran on and set up, only to have the pit's sound system BREAK. So we trudged our way through pretty well all-things-considered. Example, the sound system wasn't working so our synth wasn't working, and so we should've just collapsed, but we pulled through. Anyway we got a bad score, but it still wasn't the worst! Afterwards we watched He's just not that Into You and watched YouTube forever. On Sunday we went to Alcatraz (I know, ur jelous) and I might get pictures up if I ever get around to it. After that we went the Fisherman's Warf and ate at Bubba Gump which was delicious. We finally headed home with a good experience to cover up the disapointment of the show. And then yesterday we went to Fontana (about 45 min to an hour away from La Canada) to go to our next show. This time we were determined not to screw up. Once again we had an exellent warm up and we pumped up but a bit more nervous. We went and preformed, with no malfunctioning of the sound system (to our great joy). We played amazingly and were satisfied with our playing and impatient to find out what we got. No one would tell us our score until the award cerimony to we all waited through the delays and everything, miracuasly keeping most of our hair in tact. Finally our coaches came to sit with us as the awards started and they looked mad and said that we should've done better, thus furthering our tension. As they called out the placements from bottom to top, we all held our breath and squeezed each others hands as placement after placement was called with their schools, and we were not there. Finally the fourth one was called, and the coaches were like, that should've been us and bla bla bla. Every1 was on the edge o their seat with adrenaline pumping and the want to scream. The judges paused for what seemed forever before anouncing 3rd place. They said that 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place groups got such outragiously high scored that they were being places in the next highest level. They called third place, and by this time our coaches were starting to break with their facial expressions. We were not called. Our reps to recieve the awards were tapping their feet with impatience as the 3rd place people took what seemed like forever to get their trophie. They called out 2nd place, and they called out La Canada!! Everyone in drumliune immediatly stood up and were screaming and hugging we were so happy!! One of the reps had to actually retrain the other one because he tried to run up he was to esatic. Then, they called first place, and we had lost by 7 tenths of a point, thats .7 compared to the 3 point gap between 3rd and 2nd place. But we were so happy we did't care!! Well that's the climax of the story. I shall write sometime hopefully in this month, it all depends.
ps.
Read my brother's blog!!
It's really interesting

-Caroline

The Killers, hikes, break, 2009!!

I trust you have heard the song Human by the Killers, and so you've probably wondered yourself or know someone who's wondered this question: Do they mean denser or dancer in the chorus? Personally I think its denser, because are we human, or are we dancer doesn't work!! So what do you think?? And why doesn't the composer of the song or any of the Killers come and clean this mess up?!

Anyway, onto other topics. How was every one's Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate along with the amazing new year?? Mine was GREAT!! full of random hiking exertions and fun workout sports. Not to mention the Rose Parade!!!
The hike was short, to say the least. But there were quite interesting monuments, including a log that was given rocks to look like a wolf. It was really quite convincing in real life, if you don't see it. We also found some strange rusting materials that agree not meant for a nature hike.. After agreeing that the waterfall was indeed a disappointment, we decided to scale large boulders to the top of the waterfall where Lauren innocently exclaimed that she had seen "a guy" do it easily and it was harmless. I'm glad no one got hurt. It turns out that this guy that she had seen was a really good hiker, that was getting to a harder trail, that Lauren decided not to do after we got up there. I am glad to say (or am I?) that I've been through much worse that that. So after we scaled the rock and got up the top for nothing, we both agreed to not go that way down, to avoid broken bones. So we followed a supposed path, that abruptly ended near this gnarly looking tree, and we decided to go down. I was too steep for Lauren at parts so she sat down and got a black butt. It was interesting, but there were no spectacular views during the hike, but we certainly found a great view of Pasadena, the ocean, and LA. All in all, Lauren bonded, if not with me, than with a particularly smooth rock.

All in all, it was a good trip, but was WAY to short (being 1 mile), and as soon as I got home, I was whisked away by my dad, Christopher, Megan, and Allie for some truly sweat worthy basketball, Frisbee, and soccer. We all had fun frolicking about and trying to make penalties on each other by kicking the ball very, very hard. I was on the wrong end at the wrong time when my dad shot, and his kick knocked the wind out of me, and left my stomach very red where the ball had smashed jarringly into my stomach.

Today, with a large Palmer family in tow, we paraded into my dad's office for some hard core parading in the fashion of the Rose Parade. With my nifty camera I was able to capture most of the action, apart from Penn State (MALFUNCTION!! sorry!!), and here are some good highlights

And I am going to be mean to USC fans, and nice to Penn state fans by not publishing my USC pics and videos because I didn't get any for Penn State. But I must say, both schools put on quite a show. So instead I will show you one of my favorite floats that sang Who Let the Dogs out!?
This has been quite an interesting week and if you want a different accounting of the events that I have recorded today, then go to my sister's blog, because she has a different point of veiw, at least for the hike.

now on to the random but hilarous portion of the journey before we part until eather I write, or you read my blog. My beloved mother that deals with her children and ends up teasing them daily, or sings shoulda put a ring on it! in a strange fashion while sticking out her hand as if to show us her ring. As she sings these lines wrong, we cannot help but rolling our eyes while diverting them, and Lauren usually lets out a very girlish giggle while we try to explain to her that those are not the lines, you have never heard the song before so just stop singing that line, and you don't know what it means. Lauren will then occasionally spill out a remark like "the song's album name is 'for single women'". In those silences in between my mom singing off key and us trying to think of something that my mom won't find a reason to sing that line again (because she usually sings that fifty times a day), it is immpossible not to hear a very load hiccupe. The same goes for any silence, while puncuating a point, or akward silences. The reason, according to my mom, is that she gave birth to 'two toads'. Referencing to that fact that two of my sisters, Allie and Samantha have uncontrollable hiccupes that they have absolutely no control over and at random times in around twenty minute intervales hiccupe very loudly for all to hear. I usually am able to skip all these things that I have just discribed by spacing out and going my parallel dimensions in gratitude as I relive my fanatasies by using by trusty ipod, a good book, or just zone. I havn't been able to do it quite well as I was able to do when I had my concussion. I zone out and die for long stretches of time without realizing it, not that I wouldn't remember anyway. The only bad thing was that I couldn't control it at all.

Now I must leave you to ponder te things that I have shown or in other words reveilved unto you.

-Caroline

ho ho ha!!

Sorry I haven't written in FOREVER!!! Just nothing interesting has been happening that's really "blog note worthy" as Lauren (not my sister, and not the Californian, but the Bostonian) would put it as. And then after that the rush of Christmas fever was born, and I just haven't had time. The only BIG big peace of news is that Allie is coming home on Friday! Its very exciting and I look forward to seeing her and someone else (its a secret, cause there is a certain family to surprise.. :D). My mom is making a fuss about it almost as much as she did when Christopher came home from his mission. It is quite an experience.
I hope everyone is rounding up the family and getting up the Christmas tree (or Hanuka candles, or both {as in Jessamyn's case}). If you could never believe it could actually snow in California, where people actually live, you have been proven wrong. There is weather proof and picture proof if you don't believe me. I have a very new, interesting and defiantly not traditional look on things for Christmas. For you see, I intend to fully call out my "sophisticated" over-active imagination and also to get back at my siblings in riddles and to try to open their eyes with stories. It will be quite a fun experience.
Have you all seen Twilight? I hope you have because if you haven't, you need to get with the program! Especially if you haven't even read the book! It is an excellent book AND movie FYI!

-Caroline

PS
I am getting that Camel picture up with the help of Allie next time I write a post (which I promise to be soon)

life goes on

For starters, I feel I must adress the ingurys that has occured since my last post. I will start with what I feel is the most important: I got a concussion about 2 weeks ago. That is the reason why I havn't posted another post recently. That is the only injury in my immediate family that I am aware of (which means I don't know about Christopher, Megan, or Allie).
The extent of this injusry was temperarly short term memory loss (not an experience that I'm willing to go through again), and spacing out at any random moment. The cause was that I was playing 1 on 1 soccer drill at soccer practice and somhow fell or collided or something. The details are hazy.
It has finally rained down upon the dert called California, and is starting to mildly cool off from the blazing spring, SUMMER, and fall. Life continues fairly normally with all its twists and turns with unexpected outcomes. One up I am willing to boast about is that my soccer team (the Pepto Bizmo's {not to be confused with the pills}) are tied in first place along with the very physical Sprits.
This is the extent of my post!
-Caroline