Shakespeare in the Park

How did I luck out?

It was my favorite play this year!

TWELFTH NIGHT

(So much better than last year's King Leer)

I mean isn't the set so dreamy??

I made Benny come really early so we got a good seat. 

Buttt we forgot a blanket.

Luckily a really really nice lady came and shared with us.

Like our snacks??

Sushi. Cheesecake. Cherry Coke. Lemonade.

Also isn't the program so dope. 

I'm obsessed with the design.

Andddd this was the picture that made the security lady come and talk to me and tell me to delete it.

Same lady as last year.

I still don't understand.

She obviously didn't understand that there is a "recently deleted" album. Oops.

APIARY

I have been wanting to go here forever.

And finally we did.

And it did not disappoint!

We went to an apiary in Atchinson, Kansas--about an hour away from my house in Kansas City. The drive was beautiful and I was driving so it wasn't frustrating at all (I have a lot of pet peeves of other people's driving). 

It's called Hillside Honey.

**If you aren't interested in the background of how this little--but growing--business came about then just skip this next paragraph. It is very interesting to me, but it would be far superior if you heard it from the owner's themselves and saw it in person!**

The owner's are a married couple and their family. He is a veteran and wanted to get into a hobby to distract/cope. They had a garden in their backyard so they wanted to have a hive to help pollinate their garden. He said from there it was addicting! They have 40 (?) hives now...lol I don't remember exactly. But either way that's a ton! They turned it into a business and bought an old high school to base their office, which obviously I think is super cool haha. What I really like and respect about their business though is how they run it and how they use their money. They use the school to host a Christian homeschool type program and to slowly grow the business. It was so much cooler when they were telling us about it, but they just seemed like genuinely good people. 

Since our "tour" was just my mom and two brothers, we could basically do and see whatever we wanted. 

Kinda worried when we saw the suits because it was just a jacket with no pants. Also I was wearing Sperry's and there was like half of my foot not covered.

We bought pecan creamed honey, blackberry, jalapeño, and barbecue.

I picked the BBQ, and it tastes so good on grilled chicken!

Just enough sweetness for me.

Now I like looking at bugs and strive to be a National Geographic photographer lol

Wisdom Teeth

There were definitely pros and cons to my experience.

pros

-got to try drugs with my mom and government's permission

-none of my teeth were impacted

-got to watch TV

-got to be awake for the procedure

-only took 7 minutes to get all four out

-recovered very quickly

-didn't swell at all

CONS

-didn't say anything funny AT ALL.

Isn't that a complete bummer?! 

The only time I can say or do whatever and not get in trouble and the laughing gas didn't do anything for me--and when they gave me a higher dosage I got nauseous.

-didn't get chubby cheeks

-couldn't milk it at all because most people couldn't even tell

mostly just mad that I didn't get a funny video. 

I guess there is the answer to what would ever happen if I got high.

nothing.

See?

This is right after.

Nothing at all.

Currently

I don't know if I already mentioned this, but I went through like a week or two of just reading a TON. It's a blessing and a curse that I can read fast (mostly blessing). But for that couple of weeks I really didn't do anything else haha. It was totally worth it though. This "Selection" series was amazing. Like perfectly cheesy and had no unexpected plot twists. It was just my type of romance read. I really hate those books like Hunger Games or Divergent where they have a plot twist and screw up the whole romance. This series is perfectly predictable. Just how I like it! I am waiting for the 5th book in the series though. Only 48th in line on hold now.....It used to be 187th. Sooooo looks like I won't be able to get to read it unless the e-book version comes in because I leave soon!

When Benny worked at Panera this lady came in and gave him Zona Rosa coupons (mall by us) which is super random, but one was an "All you can fit in a 16oz cup for $4" frozen yogurt coupon.

!!!!!!!!!!

JUST WHAT I NEED

When we got there though, she gave it to me for FREE ugh I love the world.

That little separator thing was a bad idea though. Because I got less than I could have without it. I should've just loaded it up without it. Bummer. One day when I'm really rich (a common thing I say) or just want to blow $20, I'm going to go back and fill up a huge one.

(don't know why it's not focused on anything. oh well)

Last Panera date.

Dating someone who works at Panera has it's benefits.

girls take notes

You get 75% off the day you work (or if coworkers are nice lol) so we could both eat our hearts out for like $10 max and it was glorious.

Won't be going back there "till I'm rich" because food is hecka expensive man.

First (and last lol) Royals game I will go to all year. 

I'm pretty sure both of us looked up how the teams were doing this year just so we could sound smart to each other and come up with an accurate prediction. 

GUESS WHO'S WHAT RIGHT.

Mine.

of courseeeeee

Update: 

"I didn't just look that up, I actually follow the Royals"

-Benny

Well guess who was still right. Me. 

lol

Wow. Doesn't this look interestinggggg????

Oh the things we make at work....

I've made breakfast calzones, banana boats, stuffed mushrooms, rice pudding.

It's a party.

The stuffed mushrooms were a huge success though, everyone started making them for fun haha

Yum food. 

Making crepes is a pain in the butt, but they are yummy!

Benny went to St. Thomas and kept sending back pretty pictures to make me jealous.

AND THEN LOOK AT THIS!!!!

Someone in my family posted this on Facebook because the little boy in the middle is my dad!!!

Lol

Graphic Technologies Camp @ UCM

Oops.

I don't know the last time I posted, but I know it probably wasn't the actual date it says. Getting my laptop definitely helped, but I am still far behind on actual occurrences.

BUT, never fear, I am at a Graphic "Technologies" summer camp this week and for the past like 5 hours I have been sitting here just messing around on the computer because I completed all my projects very quickly. I think it's because my style is kinda minimalistic. I don't like tons of extra stuff--or I don't have the talent to create all the extra detail--whichever pleases you.

What is this camp?

Welllll, first off I believe it's a graphic "technologies" camp (as opposed to Graphic Design) because we are learning how to produce our products as well as the Adobe suit and html. We have designed and produced bookmarks, notepads, 2 t-shirts, 2 coasters, key tags, bumper stickers, normal stickers, vinyl stickers, a mug, a sign/wall art, and a website. Truthfully, it's a lot of basic items, but I like the freedom that comes along with being able to design anything. 

It is at UCM which is about an hour south east of Kansas City--I got to have an "awkward" hour of conversations with my parents about things I need to know before I head off to college. Don't worry it wasn't awkward though, because we all know I'm the perfect daughter who knows all that practical and intellectual stuff anyways (just lacking in the social department obviously lol but idk because my happiness comes from different things, and some people's approval is not one of them). 

Anyways...This is the only camp I've been to that isn't like school or church sponsored. There are literally only 10 people at the camp! Which is so surprising to me! It was only like $360 for like a 5 day overnight camp, with food, and all the supplies, PLUS we all ended up getting $270 scholarships so we literally paid $90. That's like crazy. 

Here's a link to my designs. Just the design, not them on the item:

http://mikaylieparco.wix.com/mikaylie-parco

Right here I had a summary of every person in the camp, which is totally fine if they find it after camp, but of course someone found it during the camp (thank goodness it was someone who I had written very very good things about haha). Basically, there was a whole mixture of different personalities, but surprisingly we all got along pretty okay! My friend Siddhant was the one who found it, but thankfully he is very appreciative of honest blogs and I had only good things to say about him haha. He was one of the people who I thought was probably the coolest one there. He had interned for Apple and Twitter (I know right???), and had lived in Singapore, and had a pretty similar personality--or just one that went along well with mine. But overall he was pretty cool.

I was really nervous when I introduced myself because I realized that I had only had like 1 year experience in graphic design and I was graduated and planned on majoring in this!!!

what if i didn't like it

Well, fortunately, I love it!

And I'm really pumped to go to BYU and major in this (if I can get in the program...). 

I did really really like learning html though too. It's probably the easiest coding lol but I am really curious to learn a lot more. I just picked it up really really quickly; it makes a lot of sense logically to me. 

Here are some pictures of our group at factories:

Weekend in Utah

thank goodness donut day wasn't on a Sunday

thank goodness I got access to the car

thank goodness there is a krispie kreme down the road from my grandma's 

my grandma has so much random stuff, and these arrowheads were some of the treasures we found this time:

Annddd more food <3

Burger Supreme.

(basically Crown Burger)

Which means you have to get a lamb and beef gyro!

ColoRADo

Yet another stop along the way to Utah!

Even though taking I-80 (through Colorado) is 2 hours longer (18 hours), it's definitely the more scenic interesting route. We stopped in Colorado Springs at like 1 in the morning and slept at a sketchy Walmart parking lot haha. This was the first time we've ever done this, and I honestly don't think I would have worried at all, except this town had like 50 other homeless people sleeping in the parking lot too. Also the fact that we had been driving around for an hour and had realized that Colorado Springs is so much sketchier than we had ever known!

We only ended up sleeping probably 5 hours, because we got up early to hike the incline.

(better renamed: the stairs of Hell)

Oh it was so refreshing to finally be able to look down!

It was on this hike that I realized I'm SO out of shape. Like so bad.

The way back down was not down the stairs, but down the side/back. And it wasn't stairs!!!

thank goodness

It took two times longer to get back down than it took to get up.

After we made it down it was only like 10, so we decided to go to the Garden of the Gods.

I'm sure it would be a billion times better to get to rock wall climb it, which I want to do so bad! But besides that, it was pretty red rocks that I would rather see in Moab or Arches.

Then we went to get Mexican food (brothers got BK bc they are lame), and I found out I got a B on my final so I ended with a 92% in the class which sucks because it's an A-, but it was a billion times better than the grade I thought I would get!

Strataca

Another attraction on the way to Utah: Stataca

Basically, the Salt Mines.

650 feet under Hutchinson Kansas, a huge active salt mine that's also used for storing original movies, costumes, newspapers, etc. We went on a few different tours beneath, and wandered the exhibits that showed how they mined. It is actually really surprising how many people showed up here and at the National Prairiegrass Reserve. Like how do these people find out and then drive all the way out here and stuff??

Tallgrass Prairie Reserve

So my psychology teacher told our class about this park, andddd coming from the Midwest, most of my classmates didn't think it was interesting haha

BUT I thought it sounded super cool! 

Imagine just fields of nothing.

I don't know, something about that intrigued me, and since it was (kinda) on the way to Utah we made a scenic detour. Since the prairie grass doesn't grow super tall until the Fall it wasn't as interesting as it could be, but I still thought it was cool. There was absolutely no service out there though, and I was so confused how people could possibly live in not only Kansas, but literally the middle of nowhere.

Ugh, isn't it kinda dreamy?

It was a little bit of a walk to get to the middle of nowhere, but it was worth it. We had to walk through a bison pasture where there was a chance of getting attacked...buttt we didn't see any which was disappointing. At least we didn't die though.