HAWAII!

And our adventure began...

Sunday, March 11th, 2012

First, we arrive at the Salt Lake City Airport at 6:30 a.m. Mom, me, Haley, Hannah and Hyrum all fly to Las Vegas together thinking we will all get on the flight to Hawaii. The turn out- Haley, Hannah and Brynn watch Las Vegas from a window 'til 1 a.m. Monday. Hyrum and Mom fly straight into Honolulu, Oahu. I know, the things we suffer. Going to Hawaii is hard enough, but staying there for years... no, no, no. It was actually a party! 

Brother Breton joins us at 8 p.m. We play Scum, Golf, Speed Scrabble, Egyptian Ratscrew, BS, listen to songs on Breton's fancy Iphone... It couldn't have been better. Just when we thought it couldn't get more fun (just as we realized our snacks were long-gone) Breton discovered the U.S.O. This is a place where all Army soldiers and relatives can get all-u-can-eat vending machine food, fall asleep to movies in a big, dark room full of sleeping bundles of old Army guys, go on the internet, play xbox, get a supply of razors, tooth brushes, tooth paste, lotions, shampoo, etc. from the donated stash and more. This place felt like a Disney Land to travelers like ourselves. We came back to sleep after we all missed our flight to Hawaii at 1am Monday morning. But, don't worry, we got on a flight to L.A. at\/\//\/\/\/\/

(speed scrabble: every plane wait of our lives and it never gets old)

(making camp in airports: this is my bed. this is a pic of the mirror ceiling- a reflection of me laying down beside the airport chairs. oh, that mirror provided many fun games for me and Hannah- don't wanna ruin our good reputations by telling you about them.)

And during all that, Hyrum and Mom did this...

Man who made toys and hats out of palm leaves and Hyrum- he gave him a rose&a boat.

Paddle Boarding

Ammon and Breton rented paddle boards and went out for a 2 hour ride about a mile or two out!

We have an underwater case for our GoPro camera, so Breton suction cupped it to the front of his paddle board for the entire ride! Therefore, the video's are extremely long- they make me sea sick. If you don't want to watch all 23 minutes of this ocean, I can help you skip to the good parts! He films a turtle swimming under the water! It's the coolest part! He doesn't show it in this, but he tried to catch it when it came really close to him. The camera may be extremely wiggly because he was trying not to fall off his board.
12:45  The GoPro films a school of big fish deep down 
13:10 Breton sees the turtle for the first time! It's so cool, please watch!

MUHALO!! Have a great day! Love, Brynnie

My Boyfriends

This is one of my boyfriends, Chayce Monsen:) He turns 4 today! 

This is Landon Monsen, another one of my favorite boyfriends! He loves to hang out with teenagers. Good thing, because we LOVE to hang out with him.

I never loved babysitting so much until I met the Monsen kids. We have the most "epic battles" and me and my friends all LOVE to battle with them.

In these pictures, Hyrum was playing with them on the tramp. Haha, notice Landon's flailing foot in the air:)

Peace!! {Landon was trying to show me how old Chayce was turning}

Chayce makes the best faces!

Yes, I took a picture while he was crying a few days before. He looked so cute; I just had to.

I would play with these boys over any one of my friends on the weekends! Sorry, guys. Landon and Chayce are like little teenagers. They'll even show up at my friends houses if we're doing chores at my house and can't play:) One time I was teasing Landon, telling him that monsters were real, and he told me, "No! Heavenly Father made no real monsters!!":) When my friends write me notes at school they write, "Dear Blynn" because Chayse can't say Brynn. I love it! It's too bad he's learning how to talk better:) I still need pictures of my best friend, Cambry- their little sister. But she's always the "nap-captain" when the boys come over to play (that's the name of whoever's taking a nap- I think that is so cute!). 

You should be jealous you don't have as cute of boyfriends as I do:)

"It's ficticious!"

I almost disciplined myself and actually attempted to finish my website for photography- the darn internet's too slow to download a thing anyways, Mr. Gibby. So, here I am. Attempting to write a post about something, but it's probably not going to work.

Let me just tell you that I'm having trouble talking to people with out the urge to spin in circles wildly, usually I want to make Marisa screams- those kind seem to fit the best- but, other times, goat noises seem to be acceptable as well. And, let me tell you that it's not easy to stay sitting there in class, mom. It's not easy. If you only knew how often my legs are jumpy and want to run outside; how tempted my skin is to be warmed by sun when I see that open door to the hallway, you'd give me some credit for being in class.
Sure, I'm a little bit tardy-ish. But, Chappy's cute. Some people just don't get how vital it is to talk to blonde, curly haired boys and if you're not feeling awkward for once that week, you have got to take advantage of it. You don't get it, mom, because you're all... out going and weird stuff like that.
You all know my mother. And, mom, I'm sorry if this summer Dani and I get drunk (mentally, mind you). We might sleep over in the church, yes, and Maddiey and I will most likely sneak off on walks for hours and hours and I'll paint things that dad doesn't want me to paint (like the fridge for example...or that table Hyrum traded someone for an egg- best game ever). Mommy, I'm sorry, but I will most likely get a Jedi Braid again and tie sea shells from Florida onto it and I'll most definitely end up having Dani dye a part of my hair white and another little part blue. I'll probably never take off my swim suit and count the 7 Peaks wave pool as a shower, sorry. Hannah and I will probably set up a tent on our lovely grass when you're not around to tell us no. Tyler and I will probably play sleeping bag wars on the trampoline again- actually, maybe not, you got really mad... (nah, we'll probably do it anyways). But I will take over Breton's room the day he leaves on his mission to Chihuahua Mexico and I will sneak out of Hyrum's window well if you try and ground me. Sorry, mom, but these things must be done. And no Tabasco Sauce can stop me! :)

I love you, mom. Because you'll expect all of that. I'm glad you know me. The best thing about me is that I never do the same wrong thing twice.   Unless it's really too much fun to pass up.

I LOVE MY SIBLINGS

Hyrum (10), Hannah (12), Haley (14) and I spent our Sunday morning having a 1940's dance party with my thrift-store-only-slightly-1940's dresses and my mom's dress up box. These are pictures we went down to my room to take after our little dance party where we made up our little dances because we're little and know little about dancing, of course ;)

I got no pictures of Haley, although her dress was one of the best ones. We love my red lipstick Hannah gave me for Christmas! It's been put to good use on so many people for the strangest reasons. But that's a story for another time...

"Hi-bum's" so weird and everyone who knows him loves him because of it.

I was going to title this post 'Our 1940's Sunday', but the title you see up there just fit much better with what I am feeling right now. This past month, my brothers and sisters have been my BEST FRIENDS. And. It. Is. So. Much. Fun. I doubt you have any idea until you are in the house of the Hallsted's for a Sunday or two- yes, people, morning 'til night. 

You might think it's wild. Our yelling, raspy voices might give you a head ache for a while. And, sure, the constant singing might get out of hand. We Hallsted's have so much energy cooped up inside us, we have to let it out by bouncing off the walls or yelling at each other. Either way, we'll end up dying laughing and it's too much fun.

Let me explain these friends of mine...

Hyrum (Hi-bum, Hyguy or SweetUms) loves to make up songs about poo and is always talking to himself. If you listen, he's making up imaginary "game-games" with himself- he'll deny it. We just created a fabulous snow-cyclops yesterday. Breton never wears a shirt (or pants for that matter) and talks the loudest out of us all. Hannah pretends to be a man but loves to make flowers and jewelry (she's a little mixed up, huh, Hannah?). Haley has "anger issues" that gives us something to do in our spare time. And when she's not reading and I'm not writing, Haley and I stand in front of our mirror and make up songs about boys and socks. 

My old siblings who have ditched our party for better things? Amanda and I love to criticize everything that passes- Manda, we can't deny it. And I can't deny that I love it. We talk about everything (and we know I love to talk and especially about babies. Though Manda's a little closer to that goal than I am, dang it :) But, really, she shows me that people can accomplish anything they want to. She will always surprise me with that persistence and I'm jealous of her. Ammon? I love Ammon. I didn't at first and that's why I think I love him so so so much now. I loved swing dancing with him when I was little. If Ammon's around, I literally cannot be sad. Can anyone? 

I love my family. They are honestly my best friends. I love that I'm keeping them forever and ever. 

Can I even say that? Or is that going against everything a teenager's supposed to believe in? "Jeez the Weez", what is the world coming to when a teenage girl would rather hang out with her brothers and her sisters on the weekend?

But, don't be too jealous... because you have one too...

let me call you Sweetheart...

Happy Valentine's Day!

Dear Manda (and anyone else who would like to read my blog... but mostly Manda :), I have decided that this blog will mostly be for you! Now that I'm tired of teenage- poetic, same-old-same-old blogs, I'm going to put pictures on here so that you can see what is going on here in this crazy Cedar Hills of ours while you live in "The Big Apple". We miss you so much and I hope you can forgive me for being so mean while you stayed with us after your surgery. Love ya! ~BrynnieBamboo

I went to SweetHearts with, no, not all of these people, just with Cameron:) But all these kids were hiding in my house when he picked me up for the dance (in his giant 15 seater van). My mom had everyone come in after we took the picture below. Little did we know that she was just trying to give the 15 little girls, Breton and Hyrum more time to sneak into the back of Cameron's van. We got into the car and drove quite a ways before we realized there were so many more voices making kissing noises and laughing than the other two couples I could see in the back. And what the heck! There were hundreds of little 12 year old girls from the 8th ward joining us on our date! Emily Skousen yells, "Don't make out too much!" and Halie Olsen yells, "Kiss 'er good!" and brother Breton yells, "Pickle Surprise!!". It was so funny (but I think Cameron was a little annoyed b/c we were late already). But I was dying laughing. I love the Beehives in my ward! 

They decorated the 15 seater van for the date (this is when the 17 children were hiding in the back:).



 

So, there's this boy named Tayvin who hates me. So, I decided to pretend to be obsessed with him. My mom helped me make this shirt to embarrass him. He hid from me at school so I posted this picture on his facebook wall.

Valentines Breakfast
(at dinner time)



My mom decorates our kitchen for the day of love breakfast every year. I love our strawberry pink milk tradition and the love notes she writes us and sets at our plate! 

This is the picture Hurum put on his school Valentine's box :)

As close as we can get it.

What if we had a giant piece of paper- the size of this house? We could fold it into a paper airplane and travel across the valley on it. The wind will pick up and take us over the mountain to that small Heber City. We'll get ice cream at that place like when we were kids and traveled in that bumpy white Jeep listening to Colors. I loved that Granny's place where I discovered fry sauce and gummy bears in vanilla ice cream. But, they tore it down and we got a new Jeep that was red and fancy and didn't bump so much (besides, my mom told me how fry sauce was fattening and I've never forgiven it since). So, everything changed except for the point that *Colors still makes me car sick, in or out of the car.


Things change so fast and I can't remember so many things that I wish I did. I can't remember my 8 year old baptism like I was supposed to. I only remember that the Carmichael's gave me a weird plastic doll thing with pink spaghetti hair. 


The only thing I remember about Mrs. King's class in elementary school is that she made us pick up garbage and, one time, Clay Francis and I went for the same piece of crap and our hands touched. Did I ever notice him the day before? Nope, but we were going to get married, of course (until I found another boy to be secretly engaged to the next week- "So that's when it all started" quote Tyler George- yes, I'm still ridiculous). 


Every one of my memories are that bizarre and that random. Are yours? 


I write in my journal avidly now, but then... not so much as to even have the colored pages make sense to a single soul. So, my mother gave me an idea(for what else are the odd creatures for than birthing and scrap-booking?). Mother told me to maybe write down all the childhood memories I can remember so I don't lose any more than I already have. See? Their ideas are grand! So, if you can remember only a few memories, write them down in a new childhood journal... or, it'd be kinda cool to add on to the old journals too.


"Let your memories grow stronger til they're before your eyes"
Love, your barefooted blogger, Brynnie


*Manda, isn't that the band that Derek gave you a c.d. of? If so, cute! and lucky. No future husband of mine will give me a c.d. b/c nobody gives c.d.'s anymore.

What a splendid get together!

Wednesday night, I had my long awaited Old Fashioned Christmas Party! My Kumquats, my little sisters and a few of their friends all came over and picked out some of our dresses.

{Dani Rogers, Marisa Oswald*, Me, Maddiey Beardall and Brenna Bergeson} 

{My Gorgeous Kumquats}

{Emily- Dani's sis, Hannah- my sis}

{Shelby- Brenna's sis, Haley- my sis, Annika Goodman}

We made the classic popcorn and cranberry on a string decoration with a needle and thread. It was so fun!

My personal favorite part of the entire party was making the old fashioned Christmas postcards. We printed out pictures of old postcards in black and white and on the back printed the writing side. We colored them in with colored pencils. We didn't have a picture, but, to make them look extra antique, my mom showed us how to rub tea bags on the postcards. It was very fun for me.

{Maddiey coloring her post card}

{Shelby rubbing her post card with a black tea bag}

The food was delicious! We had Turkish Delight, Broccoli Quiche, Lemon Bars, Orange Marmalade on freezer rolls:), incredible Wassail, Popcorn and other things. Haley gets all the credit for the food preparation. Except the Turkish Delight- it's in Narnia, how could I pass up an opportunity to make that? 

We dipped strings in hot wax then into cold water over and over again to make homemade candles. My were quite an odd shape because I struggled. But otherwise, everyone's were beautiful and old fashioned! 

We watched Little Women with Winona Ryder (who is my favorite) and Christian Bale (who is Gotham's favorite-- and everyone else). I absolutely LOVE that movie and it happened to be quite Christmasy.  

{I like this picture b\c it happens to have Teddy's face on it- We decided that we will waste our wishes on hoping that a boy like Teddy will move into the Hammer's house. I'll tell you if it ever happens:)}

*not as if anyone reads this, but I didn't know Marisa's new address so I couldn't link hers :)

If anyone reads this that wasn't actually at the party, I hope that you will try to have an old fashioned Christmas Party next year too. It was a lot of fun, at least for me. 

Love, your old fashioned (on-and-off Blogger), Brynnie