The life of Riley

Chelsea and Riley

4th of July!

The 4th of July has always been my favorite holiday. Something about the parades and fireworks (and hot dogs) make this day rock the house! All around the world, and even here in the good ol' USA, negative things are being said about America (some justifiable some erroneous), but on this day we set aside those negative feelings and celebrate a nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all! I love AMERICA!

This year I unfortunately am celebrating America's birthday alone.....but am trying to make the best of it. To make myself feel a little better I decided to list a few of my favorite past 4th of July memories (and no- going to the Miley Sirus concert is not one of them!). The list is in no particular order-seeing that I am thinking of them as I go!

4 July 2005-Soissons, France

-What an awesome experience to celebrate the 4th of July in France! We decided to do a zone activity, seeing that most of us missionaries were American. The one advantage of having a BBQ in France is the meat. Merguez, brawts, etc.=real hot dogs! One thing I remember distinctly about this day is the trouble we had lighting the grill. Elder Garfield and I decided to go buy some lighter fluid....let's just say we used the whole bottle! Without fireworks, it was the best we had.

4th of July 2008-Provo, UT
-Last year was an awesome 4th of July. Chelsea and I lived right by the parade route, so we didn't have to go far. Also my dad volunteers during the parade to help with regulating bleachers. Because he is in charge of bleachers, we get free seats-in the shade!! The only thing we had to do was "regulate" these bleachers meaning we got to wear sweet orange vests. Back in the day we would sleep out on the parade route, but this year we got to wake up right before the parade and walk about 100 meters to our bleachers. Pretty awesome!

4th of July 2003- Provo, UT
-This year I was going into my senior year in high school. I also had a sweet awesome scooter. A bunch of my friends decided to camp out on the parade route. One of the untold traditions of the Freedom Festival is the midnight parade of scooters. I was dating Chelsea at the time so we jumped on the scooter and flew up and down University Ave. honking and waving at the die hard Freedom Festival goers. It was a great moment of glory for me! And a foreshadow of all the fun scooter adventures Chelsea and I would have in the future!

There are other 4th of July memories I have that date in the 90's, but I can't think of their exact dates. Here's a list of a few of them.

We always used to get together with our cousins in Orem (the Orem Nays) for BBQ and fireworks.
Going to various spots in Provo to watch the stadium of fire fireworks.
Throwing poppers at the parade and making those next to us mad.
Drinking so much soda and eating so much junk that I would get sick (but if I could do it all over again I would!)
Going to the see the balloons early in the morning at Fox Field. I didn't understand it was an actual competition till I was like 18...
Pre and Post 4th of July being delinquent with fireworks...

Let freedom ring!

A VERY welcoming visit

So my faithful followers, as many of you know, I am in Green Bay, WI right now interning at Schneider National. It's great! I have come to really appreciate the transportation business. I work in operations at the corporate building center located in Ashwaubenon (just south of Green Bay) . It's a lot of work-14000 drivers to operate! With the economy receding like it is, budgets are tightening up. Most of my projects deal with how many pennies can I pinch out of unnecessary purchases and developing better practices processes to save the company money. Trucking is dependent on the business's for whom it hauls freight, and with many of these companies experiencing financial woes of their own, Schneider needs to be (and in my opinion is) on top of their game. Great company!

Enough about me! Unfortunately I have been alone out here-sans Chelsea. But this week she came to pay me a visit! We had a fantastic weekend. She flew in on Thursday and left Sunday. It was a short visit, but we had a blast!

On Thursday we got settled in our hotel-The Kress Inn. It's located right across the street from my dorm (yes I am staying in a dorm room! St. Norbert College). Thursday was her birthday, so we went out to a nice restaurant. Friday I had to work, but dropped Chelsea off at the local shopping mall. I got off work early so we could have more time to hangout. We went to go see the movie UP in 3D. It was a good movie, though wasn't as exciting as the last movie I saw-STAR TREK!

Saturday was our big adventure day. We drove all the way to the top of Door County, which is the peninsula that separates the Green Bay and lake Michigan. We stopped of to see the sights. It was very pretty and sooooooo hot and humid! We found a nice little town-Sister Bay-and went swimming. It was cold, but felt so good. Now I can say I took a dip in the Green Bay! We drove up the Green Bay side and then back down the lake Michigan side. We also stopped to have a picnic and found a minature golf course to play on! It was a close game, but I won!

Door County, WI

Our picnic in Sister Bay

Miniature Golf-hole in one! (maybe 3)

Riley doing a triple axel into Green Bay

We went to Church on Sunday and then I took Chelsea to the airport to send her off. It was sad to see her go, but it just makes me appreciate her even more! I'll just have to keep myself busy so that the time will fly and I can get back to good ol' P-town and be with family and friends. The ward here is great and I have been able to go out with the missionaries to help teach. We also all play ball at the chapel on Saturday mornings-so I am keeping myself occupied. Until next time!