family reunion

the browning reunion is the biggest event of my summer.. and once it is over, everyone is officially resigned to the fact that school is coming. this year was no exception. over hte 24th of july week, we floated a canal, had an amazing talent show, and ate to our hearts content. 4 of my male cousins.. haha.. formed a band. they are officially called the tree of life. they spent basically the whole time writing and practicing songs. very complex, considering we were camped out across from the town dump. they had a mini concert on the last day though, and they were suprisingly good. i was impressed. and i am their numero uno fan! haha! pioneer day is a huge thing in this town.. it's even smaller than the one i live in.. shocking, eh? they have a giant parade complete with incredible floats, and a rodeo. there is even a "fun run" early that morning. (which i totally did.. and won! heck yea!) the whole thing is made more exciting by the embroidered bright red t-shirts all 48 of us wore. it was insanely fun though! i love my family!

table rock

so... on July 31- august 2 i climbed a mountain. it was my 4th level hike for girls camp. ya.. totally lame, i know. it's called table rock, and for all those non-hikers/outdoorsy people.. table rock is a giant rock, shaped in a tablish formation. it's like, right by the grand teton, and is 4000 feet up. you should google it. there are some insane numbers involved. i was totally not wanting to go.. at all. but with a ton of help that came in several forms, i was ready. and it really wasn't as bad as i thought. true, it took 9 hours.. and true, i could barely move the next day.. but it really was a good experience. because now, everytime a challenge comes my way, i can just say "i climbed table rock.. i can do this too".

that lesson came just in time too. while we were on the top of table rock, one of my leaders received a text (i know! it's amazing that she had service clear the heck up there) that a girl in my class had been in an accident, and passed away. the good news that came out of that were that several lives were saved because of her organs. her funeral was today. it was absolutely heartbreaking. we weren't close friends, but she was such a sweetheart. i can sincerely say i will miss her.