courteney: July 2009

Independence day is one of my very favorite holidays. I love it! Each year it's spent in my own little town of Lewiston, lounging about all day with my family and enjoying the festivities. The day starts off with six cannon ball shots at 6:00 a.m. Thank you for the wake up call. I fall asleep for a few more hours and roll out of bed at about 9:25 to 60 family members standing in front of the house waiting for the parade to start. Who doesn't love candy for breakfast?

Everyone is so serious...

I'm not sure what the best part of this picture is... my awesome outfit, sitting next to the APX salesman, Grandpa about to dive bomb for a single piece of candy, or Grandma yelling at floats to throw her some more.

Nilda and little Scotty!

Notice how everyone around me has moved...but I'm still in the same spot

After the parade, we sorted our candy....

Prepared a little lunch...

And began the lounging...

Me and the Gmadre

We had to take a few of the little tykes inside for a bit during naptime to watch A Goofy Movie, one of mine and Calvin's personal favorites.

We decided to try something completely new this year...My cousin Amber took us on a little adventure to a nearby flume. Adventure is an understatment... I was in charge of getting everyone dressed for the event and I was running low on swimsuits...Amber wins best dressed

The flume crew...Cindy, Taryn, Michelle, Amber, me, Vic, Cherie, and Hunter

I was ready to roll

but Mom was a little scared

The ride back was little scarier though

Shelly was ready for another run

I wasn't as daring coming back the second time...it was a long walk

We're fierce

After flumin', it was time for some more great conversation circles to partake in... Kasey on the other hand was a little too tuckered out to converse.

A little later...the dance party began...don't judge us...more particularly, me

I hope everyone had an amazing 4th!!

On my flight home last night I was reading an article that read, "they say the worse the wedding, the better the marriage." If this isn't true about marriages, I can vouch that it's true about vacations. Buddy Passes are of the devil when trying to fly through major US airports. Someone should have informed me that the Southwest Airlines Denver-Philadelphia flight is completely booked each time it flies out. This would have been very valuable information before I became stranded all alone in Denver for multiple hours. When I arrived at the gate at the Denver International Aiport I was mentally prepared for a five hour layover before leaving for my final

destination. I got off the plane, asked the kind employees at the counter where my next plane would be deploying from, walked down the aisle way to the next counter where I was informed my flight was completely, 100% full. No seat for me (a few tears welled up in fear of being alone forever but there were no rolling). Um...what am I supposed to do at this point? The next flight to Philly is the next morning at 5. Not okay. Lefty's Front Range Grill was about to become my permanent home.

The frantic phone calls begin. Mom, Kirsten, Ty, Jordan, Shelly, they were all recipients of stressed conversations and travel ideas. I could fly to Chicago and catch a Philly flight from there, I could wait until the next morning and fly directly to Philly, and the chosen plan: fly to Baltimore, land at 10 pm, catch a shuttle to the train station, jump on the train that leaves at 10:30, and arrive in the great city of Philadelphia at midnight that night. Fool proof,right? Until a storm rolled in and delayed my plane indefinitely (Mind you, there are still no tears rolling). Okay, a little thunder and lightning never hurt anyone, especially when they stopped occurring about 15 minutes later and the plane was back on schedule. Well it was but then there wasn't a plane to be found, it was stuck somewhere trying to land around the storm that was now rolling out (still not crying). All this commotion and confusion ended and in return my flight was delayed a total of 20 minutes, just enough time to ruin my train plan... "Ty...how do you feel about driving to Maryland tonight?"

I caught the Baltimore flight, Ty did some car rearrangements, finished work for the day, drove home from New Jersey, and started heading down to Maryland. An hour and a half drive and I was saying...

Hello PHILADELPHIA!

A little jet lagged, I woke up the next morning to this outside my window. The lights and surrounding construction would be Citizen Bank Field, home of the Phillies, respectively followed by Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Eagles, and the Wachovia Center, home of the 76ers. I do realize I could have gotten a better ghetto shot to represent the slight fear running through my body but I'll just let you enjoy this one and let you in on a little fact: my hotel was 8.4 miles away from the city center of Camden, New Jersey, currently America's highest crime city.

We made a round through the city searching for a place we swore did

n't exist, ate a little I-Hop (well, I ate a little, Ty ordered the entire menu AND ate it all), Ty headed out for work, and I decided to take my lazy bum for a little walk. Down the street a bit was FDR park, a beautiful, less scary than my 70s-style hotel place to be alone so I put on my running

shoes and headed out. Word of warning: the east is humid. Taking a 1/2 mile walk, 45 minute run, and then walking home means you're going to be sweaty if it's 1 in the afternoon. Good thing I didn't know anyone there. After the sweatfest I decided to surprise a few of the girls and let them know I was in the city. Celeste, Brinley, Karly, and Kynzie wasted no time and were on there way to my hotel. It should have been a 10, 15 minute joy ride but welcome to Philadelphia where the traffic

makes you want to punch yourself in the face....an hour later the squad arrived at Econo Lodge and another hour later we arrived at the Riverwalk at Millenium apartments. Kynzie had to go to work and Brin went down for a nap so what was left of us spent an afternoon enjoying a new love, Mexican Train, and a solid love, Diet Coke.

I'm a little too awake for a Saturday morning

Saturday = the event this trip was really planned around...

I thought it would be a fun learning experience, trying out to be one of 15 76ers dancers. Definitely an experience. I was little nervous and felt a little awkward that I had to try out in a sports bra and shorts. Little did I know I would have the most clothes on when I got to PCOM.

Let's just say it was an eventful day and I wish I had someone to share all the goodness with. Registration began 8:30, choreography promptly at 9:00, first cut done by 9:25. Talk about a rush. A room full of 95 hopeful girls was cut down to 70 in less than an hour. We then learned their hiphop routine, a fun little number to the Black Eyed Peas new single. 2 hours later, 30 more girls left the room. Then it was lunchtime. I mingled with a few of the local girls and learned a lot about the rest of the audition process and few cool things about the area. I was making phone calls all around the country during each break trying to keep everyone posted on the day's outcome. Another dance, another few hours, another cut. The 30 finalists were announced....I made it! haha...it was fun to be out there and do something different.