Summer is almost over....

Well well well....I passed allll my classes this summer term!! And man was it HARD and terrible at times, but I did it!!! And now I'm going to for sure be able to sing the Queen of the Night from The Magic Flute this fall at BYU!! I'm wayy excited and happy about it.

The summer has mostly involved school, but I did have my 22nd birthday!! And it was lots of fun!! Since it was Harry Potter's birthday as well I convinced Kyle to let me get some Harry Potter decorations! heehee It was fun decorating. All my coupled friends were able to come, my bro and his old friend Nathan were there too. It was great. We had lots of pizza, cake ,ice cream, and brownies. You know all that good/bad food you have on birthdays. haha Katie made the cake and it was adorable!! It had cool candles that actually said Happy Birthday! haha The lil things really do make things more special sometimes. Her and Nate got me 3 Harry Potter movies too!! I was way excited to get them!! Kyle and I actually watched one last night. haa I also was able to get on skype and see my parents and show them the party! haha My package from mom arrived just in time and I was able to open it in front of them. Mom got me some real cute clothes and a bunch of earrings! It was a pleasant surprise to get all that! Thanks mom and dad. :)

Kyle had bought me tickets to see the opera La Traviata and it was in Logan, UT. It was AMAZING!!! My voice teacher's wife was in it and she taught me for a semester at school and OH MY GOSH!!! She sounded gorgeous!!! It was really great to hear some perfected singing!!! She also looked great!! The costumes were really beautiful!! Afterwards, Kyle and I went to the Cheesecake Factory mostly b/c it was National Cheesecake day and you can get cheesecake for half price!! heck yeah!! It was the best birthday weekend EVER!! haha

Well the summer is almost over already for us.... Our ward is going camping this weekend so it should be good!! Kyle and I are some of the activities people of the ward so we will be in charge of breakfast. ha Hope we do good. Katie and Nate are also going to try and come along. Hope we have some fun!!

Pics to come...

TRIP TO TENNESSEE

Well it's been almost a couple a weeks since we got back from Memphis and man how two weeks feels forever ago already!! Kinda sad. Well Kyle and I had a blast visiting our family in Memphis. We saw Dylan graduate High School and him play his last baseball game with Bartlett. We were all pretty sad about Bartlett losing 5 to 4 to Houston. It was the Regional Championship and Houston beat us to state! :( I think it was the hardest lost ever for Dylan and his team b/c they had been planning on going to state since they were playing at 12 or 13 years old and a lot of the players he played with in middle school went on to play High School ball at Bartlett.

But alas it's over and since they lost we seemed to have more family time which is good too. We all really enjoyed having Dane and Amber's kids around. Taya and Paxton were so much fun to play with and watch over. I have to say though I know I'm not ready to have kids! They need constant attention, love, and work that I'm not sure I can give to my own at this time. I really don't know how they do it with Amber in school and Dane working. Wow. We went to the Memphis Zoo and it was amazing!! They have added so much since I have been there and it was great to see all the animals. The Memphis Zoo was also 2008's Best in the US!


We got to drive the long journey to Nannie and Grandpa's house to East TN. It was a long 8 to 9 hour drive there and traffic didn't help. haha But it was ALL worth it to see our wonderful relatives, see the land on the mountain, and play with animals. Nannie even had baby rabbits and a baby goat we could play with a bit. They were adorable!! Taya looked so cute holding the baby goat and fetching chicken eggs for Nannie.

We also went to Dollywood which is an amusement park Dolly Parton owns. It was a blast!! Well it stormed for a bit so we couldn't ride the rides for a few hours and that wasn't much fun to wait around. But we got to eventually again and one of the rides jerked me so hard I hit my ear so hard I lost most of my hearing in one ear. I was sooo scared. I couldn't hear right for the next 2 weeks and am JUST getting back my full hearing. SO HAPPY it came back. I must have damaged it pretty badly. But we all had so much fun and Taya wanted to go back the next day she told me. haha

The next day we had a lil family reunion/Bday party for Paxton turned 1!! It was soo nice to be with family and have some REAL good food too. haha My cousin Rachel is a really talented photographer and she took lots of pictures of us all too. It was great! Me and the boys after the festivities went and shot guns Grandpa has and wow did they kick back on you!!! It scared the heck out of me when I shot it. And I wasn't very good with the gun either..haha Dane and Dylan were the best...Dane has done it many times tho. We shot lil orange circlular thingies. Dang I forgot what they are called..hahaha. You tell me? Kyle just told me clay pigeons. We attempted to go fishing but the pond there was overgrown with algae. Oh well! We had to bathe really well afterwards tho b/c there is sooo much poison ivy out there!!

We came home and spent Memorial Day at Mrs. Tracie's house which is my mom's baseball mom friend. haha It was way nice! We got to swim and have some more great food! We saw Dylan play baseball with the Memphis Tigers a summer team he joined. We got some BBQ that night before we left to go back our separate ways-Utah, Washington, and to stay in Tennessee. I miss my family already. And will hold the summer memory of 2010 close to me.

Elvis Presley - Guitar Man

I'm the Queen!!

So I realized today that I never put my exciting news on my blog!! I had auditions in March at BYU for the Magic Flute fall opera and I tried out for the role of the Queen of the Night. It is a very hard role to sing and it is one of the most popular roles ever written for sopranos in an opera. I was then asked to sing for a call back a couple weeks later and then my voice teacher told me I had gotten the role! I was ecstatic! I am so grateful for the opportunity!

But then my voice teacher told me that as my personal mentor at BYU that he will not let me sing the role in the fall unless I get some music classes done....shoooot. I understand why because as everyone knows I am not good in school, but I guess it gives me more incentive to try even harder. So I am now taking Summer classes starting at the end of June. noooooooooo. I really did not want to deal with school in the summer BUT I want to sing this amazing role!! Luckily, my accompanist Tiffany, who plays for my lessons, is going to tutor me before and during I take the classes. So grateful for her...but I hope she can really help me! shoot.

Other great news- I'm going home to Memphis, TN for 2 weeks to see my parents and see Dylan graduate and play some ball for Bartlett for the la st time!! ALL us Riner kids have gone to Bartlett High. From 1997-2010 Bartlett High had some of the most talented baseball players, a talented singer, and luckily had the bright kid last!! I really hope Dane and his kids will be able to come down too!! Pray for cheap plane tickets!! haha I haven't even seen my nephew yet and he will be 1 years old next month! Craziness. I really hope we can all get together. It will be almost a year and a half since we have...(since my wedding). Guess that happens when we grow up...danng.














My brother Dane and my nephew Paxton

HAPPY VALENTINES!!!

For Valentine's Day we will be at Kyle's parents house because Kyle's brother Dan is coming home from his mission this Friday! Soo exciting. It is also going to be a 3 day weekend! So that will be good for Kyle to spend time with his bro and me to get to know him. I hope everyone has a HAPPY V-DAY!!

My mom made this page and I thought it was cool and appropriate for me to put on my blog too. :)