Scrapbooks - College - Sophomore Year - Summer Trips

The summer before my Sophomore year I found a job at Camping World. I learned more than I ever wanted or needed to know about RVs! But the pay was decent, the hours pretty good, and the manager was LDS and didn't make me work Sundays. Hardly anyone I worked with had gone to or completed college, which made me all the more determined to get my degree! (I think good summer jobs should make all students feel that way. Hah!)

That summer we went to the Heaton family reunion, which was my mom's mom's side of the family. My family drove out, but I got to fly because I had to work.

I don't think I've been to Kanab since that trip. All I know is that we stopped at a gas station and the cashier asked if we were in town for a reunion. Which one? Heaton? Then she started naming off all the people we were related to. Since my mom's side of the family also includes Hamblins (who helped settle the area), I figure I'm related to at least 75% of that town in some way!

I assuming we went to an As game because the Giants were out of town. (We were/are a Giants family.)

I remember sitting next to Sean and discussing the differences between BYU and UC Berkeley (where he was going): light years of difference! (And yet the one thing I remember most was freaking out when he told me milk was $5 a gallon at his grocery store. What the what?!) Jen was going to UC Davis.

My roommate Elary came out for a quick trip that summer. She had an uncle who lived in our stake and who I really loved because he was so much fun! (He was involved with the youth at church.) His name was - I kid you not - Tom Sawyer.

Elary was so much fun! We puttered around SF and went trap shooting with her uncle. It was fun to show her where I grew up and the places I had told her about.

And yes, Chris was still around. Things were good that summer between us, but got weird once we got back to school. It was a combination of things, I'm sure I'll get into them later.

My mom randomly took us three kids to the zoo one day. I think she probably had a doctor's appointment in SF and decided drag us along. I can understand that - one of my favorite things to do with my kiddos is go on little day trips like that.

4th of July has always been one of my favorite holidays. It's just fun. One of my fondest memories was going out to the airbase one year with my family and lounging on the tarmac, watching the fireworks and eating Oreos. One of my worst memories was working on the 4th of July the summer before my senior year in high school. I was working at Blockbuster Video, the store was dead, and I was outside washing windows, listening to the fireworks go off. Woe was me.

1997 was a good year for the 4th. How can you go wrong with a baseball game and fireworks in the fog? Notice how we're all bundled up? It would get SO COLD during those night games in the summer! (And by cold I mean like 40 degrees. It's gonna get to like 5 degrees here tonight in Indiana, so it's all relative.)

And yes, Chris was there. I wonder what my parents thought about him. And me. And all that. (My mom probably thought about it more than my dad. Dad just thought about baseball.)