The Great Get Together aka The Minnesota State Fair

It's that time once agian here in Minnesota for one of the biggest get togethers, The State Fair! What a day full of stuffing your faces with deep fried goodness. The fair has just about anything and everything you could want...on a stick. For example there's pork chops on a stick, cheese on a stick, deep fried candy bars - on a stick, and so much more!

The hot thing this year to try was chocolate covered bacon. Maren and I were brave enough to try this new food invention. It was very interesting. Looking back at it makes me want to puke! It was chocolatey yet the bacon taste was over powering and not that good afterwards.

The best things there in my opinion are the gyro's! I love them!! Here are a few pictures from our day.

Dayna enjoying a snow cone

Maren proving she'stronger than any Army guy...ok maybe just her family!


Enjoying the best part of the fair - the corn!

We found some piggy love! I thought it was cute.

Something New

Ok, I know I already had a blog title with the words "something new" but I realized I didn't go into depth about what this "something new" was exactly. First, before I get into that I'll fill ya in on what the rest of the summer was like for the Aase family.

Maren started drivers ed! SCARY!! Watch out everyone. If you're driving on ther road and see either a blue Chrysler van or a green Jeep going out of control, it's Maren learning to drive. It's crazy to think that I have a sister old enough to be doing this. It's about time though. With all the driving my mom has been doing for her with gymnastics and school and appointments, she deserves a break!

Shelby has been busy as usual although none of us know with what exactly...she's kept to herself in her room here and there listening to her music and spending time on the computer.

Dayna has been getting ready to get baptized! She was so excited that this year was her 8th birthday not only because she was turning 8 and the things that take place when you hit that age, but she finally got an American Girl Doll of her very own! She's got Mia and has been loving every minute with her. Dayna is getting baptized this weekend and so we have both sets of grandparents here to celebrate with us for this special occasion.

As for me...well quiet a bit has happened with the close of this summer. I came back from Utah and EFY and was able to enjoy a week home with the family, relaxing by the pool and watching the Olympics before I left to head to Disneyland with a group of about 80 EFY counselors. It was quiet the group! I left last week Monday and met up with friends and drove to Vegas that night. What an experience that was...it was the yearly Pool convention in Vegas and almost every hotel was either booked or cost way more than any of us wanted to pay. So we finally lucked out and we were able to stay at Circus Circus. Kind of scary but at that time it didn't matter! Finally Tuesday we got to the beautiful California (this made it the 3rd time this summer!) and since we'd left before any of the other EFY people we spent the whole day at Hunington Beach. It was SO beautiful. Of course the water was FREEZING and the boys were mean and threw us in. In the end though it was a great day. Very relaxing after a long car trip.
I spent the week with about 9 other counselors. So the 10 of us jumped from park to park each day (Disneyland to California Adventures). We had such a blast going on Space Mountain and California Screamin and the new Toy Story ride (awesome!!), but our favorite thing to do was go on Splash Mountain at the very end of the day and see how wet all of us could get. The boys in one log and the girls in a nother. Of course the boys would always win but it was still worth it.
The best day though that we all had was our last day in the parks, which was Friday. We decided to dress up like pirates and princesses and just go crazy the whole day. Note: going crazy at Disney while being dressed up wins you great rewards!

Let me explain...it was early afternoon and we wanted to go on the Storybook ride. The 10 of us were able to fill up a whole entire boat and just decided to have as much fun as possible. When we got off the ride we were approached by a Disney worker that asked if we would like to be her honorary guests for the parade. Of course we all did!! This meant that we got prime seating for the parade and that the characters would stop when they got to us and greet us and give us hugs. It was one of the most amazing experiences I have ever been through at Disney! There was one point in the parade where it had stopped for about 10 mintues or so. There was music playing and being the counselors that we were we decided to break out into one of our many EFY line dances. Everyone was watching us and cheering us on it was so cool! Here is Cinderella-my favorite-showing us some love from her float!!

We were so crazy that throughout the rest of the day workers as well as park goers recognized us and reffered to us as the Pirates and Princesses! After the parade we were given the ultimate Fast Passes where we could choose whatever ride we wanted and go whatever time that day. By the end of the night we had received a total of 8 Fast Passes, each one valid for 6 people. It was awesome! I was so glad that I was able to go on this trip becuase it will be one of the best memories I will have.

Yesterday I celebrated my 20th birthday. Yay! No longer a teenager even though I haven't felt like one in forever. But the family all went out to Don Pablo's for dinner and being a mexican place I was given quiet the birthday treat!

A close to an amazing summer and the start of something new...

What an amazing summer I was so blessed to have had! Efy was amazing and the last three weeks were so fun-besides dealing with some punk kids, eating disorders, and being hit on by 16 year olds. I feel like I was able to change in multiple ways from all of these experiences and I am sad to see it end. I am wanting to do it next year for sure though!
The past 3 weeks I had the older groups (16-18 yr olds) and I love having this group because they are more willing to do things and also more energetic, which can be bad in many ways...but these kids were all really fun! 2 of the 3 weeks I was able to have kids from London which was really fun! Their accents were so cool. It was fun talking to the London boys that I had. They reminded me of Harry Potter and it made me happy haha. I don't have any of those pictures with me yet because I put them on my computer in Utah to clear them off my camera. I do have some pictures from efy that are of me and some of the counselors I got really close with. Here are some of those:

This is the group that I got really close with (minus the guy with brown hair in the back with the striped tie) doing our secret coship sign. We were known as the Angel Kitties...long story haha.

These are two of the girls that I got really close with, Michelle and Hayley.

Myles and I having fun at checkin duty!

My two Minnesota boys Sean Robison and Stewart Perry!! It was fun running into them all week and feeling like I had a little bit of home there with me.

So I am now home for about a week and then I am going to be leaving to go with about 100 efy counselors to Disneyland. I am very excited but not so excited about making the drive for the 4th time in 2 months...it tends to get VERY long. But I have a good car load of people so it should be fun! But I am just excited to enjoy my time home swimming with my sisters and reading Breaking Dawn!