Summer Vacation 2011

We had the BEST vacation this summer!  Kira and I were done with classes on Thursday, so we went home that day and packed all up.  Friday night we left and went down to Ogden to leave Bear with Grandma. 

Early Saturday morning, Mom and Dad rushed us out the door to drive the rest of the way to Vegas.  When we got there, it was only like 3:30, but Mom and Dad were rushing us to get our stuff into the hotel, which we had no idea why.  We still had the whole day to see the sights!  But, being the obedient children we are, we did it anyway.  In the hotel room, they made us turn around and hold out our hands behind our backs.  Now I was super curious.  They put a piece of paper in my hand, and when I looked at it, I couldn’t believe my eyes!  They bought us all tickets to see The Lion King!  And that’s why they were hurrying us so fast.  It started in less than an hour and a half, and we still had to get there. 

We had a little time before the show started, so we saw the MGM Grand.  The show was absolutely amazing!  So when that was done, we went around and saw some more sights.  We went around to most of the hotels.  There’s some pretty sweet ones!  And they’re ginormous! We saw the water show at the Bellagio, and the volcano show.  

 They were both pretty sweet, but not nearly as cool as World of Color in Disneyland!  Sunday morning we went to Sacrament meeting there at 9, then left to drive to Disneyland!!!!!  Woot woot!  The traffic was awful though.  We got stuck with all the Californians who went to Vegas for the weekend.  We spend about a half day in Disneyland on Sunday.  We did the new Little Mermaid ride in California Adventure and saw World of Color.  LOVE IT!!!!!   

We spend 6 days in there, and left Friday afternoon.  It was Lance’s birthday on Thursday, so we went to Rainforest Café.  Muy delicioso!   

We also went to the beach while we were there!  I LOVE the beach!!!  :)

We drove to Phoenix Friday night, and it’s HOT there!  At 10:00 in the morning, it was already 110 degrees!  Yuck.  I wouldn’t want to live there.  Much too hot for my likings!  We drove over to El Paso, TX to see some of the people Kira served.  We could see Juarez, Mexico from our hotel!  That’s the most dangerous city in the world right now, but El Paso’s the 10^th safest city in the US.  Weird how that works out.  But it was pretty cool.  

 We went to church in both the English and the Spanish wards.  So 6 hours of church where I only understood 3.  But it was kinda cool.  Monday morning we went over to Carlsbad Caverns.  It was the coolest thing I’ve ever done in my life!  And while there, I decided to make a Bucket List.  #1 is to do the guided tours where I have to crawl, climb ladders and ropes, and use a head lamp/helmet thingie.  That was the coolest 3 hours of my life!   

We then drove over to Albuquerque for 3 days to see the people she served over there.  Our hotel was AWESOME!  They gave us one room, but it smelled like smoke, so they changed us to a penthouse!  There were 2 floors to it!  But still only 3 beds.  But it’s all good!   

Thursday, we went to the Sandia Tram, which is the longest tram in the world.  It took us up 4,000 feet to the top of the Sandia Mountains.  Pretty sweet!  Great view too. 

Then we drove over to Cortez, Colorado, and stopped at the 4 Corners on the way.   

Our hotel in Cortez was an adventure.  We’re pretty sure it wasn’t structurally sound.  And there was a sign in the bathroom warning us not to turn the bath water on all the way or we could get scalding water.  Great!  So our hotel room had the potential to kill us!  It wasn’t level either.  It scared me!  But the cool thing there was Mesa Verde National Park!  It’s a place not too far away that has ancient ruins all over the mountains!  We spent 2 days there because it was so cool!   

Then we drove back to Ogden, picked up Bear who was VERY excited to see us, and got home about 2:00 in the morning on Sunday.  So yep.  There’s our trip!  Super fun, and super long!  We clocked about 80 hours total in the car.  Yuck!   

It's never a good thing when my family gets loopy.  And we were gone a long time and had plenty of time in the car to go crazy!  We made a quote book while we were gone.  It. Is. Awesome.  Not gonna lie!  It’s got things like… “I’m sorry.” “Hakuna Matata!” (It means no worries.) … “The caveman’s not very photogenic.” and much, much, much more.  It was great!

I Know That My Redeemer Lives

I am so grateful that I have this wonderful opportunity to have the Gospel in my life.  Everyday I see a new way I have been blessed by my Heavenly Father.  He has done so much for me, like given me a wonderful family, great friends and amazing roommates!  He has given me the hope that I can become better and most importantly, He has given me my Brother, Jesus Christ, who atoned for my sins so that I might be forgiven.  I know I'm not perfect, but with Him, someday I can be.  I know that my Redeemer lives and loves me to the end.  These words are so comforting to me.  I can't wait until I get to be reunited with Him once more after this life.  I came across a version of this song from a friend in my ward when I helped her with a musical number for Sacrament Meeting, and I totally fell in love with it.  It's an arrangement by Michael R. Hicks.  Here's a link to it.  I Know That My Redeemer Lives

Happy Birthday Kira!

June 30th.  An epic day. 

It's Kira's birthday!  Except for the fact that I'm a 1/2 hour late posting this.  Oh well.

I just love Kira!  She's the greatest sister in the world, and I'm lucky enough to get to have her as a roommate too!  We've got a great relationship together!  We hardly ever fight, and she's my best friend!  We've always gotten along pretty well, but we really got close after her mission.  Almost all of my crazy moments involve her.  We're just awesome like that!

Here is an epic video of us together.  Have you ever seen the Tunak Tunak Tun video on youtube?  If not, feel to watch and enjoy.  Just click the link.  Well, we recreated it.  This is what we do in our spare time.  And yes, moments like this happen quite often.  And I'm sure there'll be plenty more to go around!  Here's our version of Tunak Tunak Tun. Hopefully it works.

Anyway, I'm so grateful for the best big sister in the world!  Love you Kira!  And I can't wait for more crazy adventures headed our way!

A Night of Recording

When I'm super stressed, there's one thing that I can always count on to calm me down.  And let me tell you, college is stressful.  So I sit down at the piano and just play away.  I had a monster homework assignment I had to get done today that's due tomorrow, and I'd been working on it for hours straight.  I was going crazy!  So I had to get out of the apartment.  I grabbed my piano books and headed over to the Snow building on campus.  There was one practice room left open, so I grabbed it.  I sat down at the piano and played away.  I'd been wanting to record my song I wrote, so brought my camera with me.  An hour later, I felt much better and had gotten the song and some others recorded.  So I guess now that I've told you about them, I have to show you.  So here they are!  Just click on the links and it'll take you to my youtube page.

This first one is "Unstoppable," the song I wrote a few weeks ago.  It's still not quite perfect, but it's getting there.  I wrote it for a couple of close friends in mind, but it goes for anybody.  We are unstoppable when the Lord is on our side.  Don't mind the mistake I made.  :)  Unstoppable

I'm really wanting to try out to be a Young Performing Missionary in Nauvoo for next summer.  Ever since we went there last summer, it's been on the top of my To Do list.  For part of my audition, I have to sing 2 minutes of an upbeat, Broadway song and 2 minutes of a hymn or ballad.  One of my favorite Broadway songs is Don't Rain on My Parade from Funny Girl.  So I'm using that one!  It's by all means not perfect yet, but it's getting better.  Thank goodness I don't actually have to play the piano for that part of the audition!  So good luck Mom!  Or whoever plays it for me.  :)  Don't Rain on my Parade

The other song I want to audition with is my favorite hymn ever, I Believe in Christ.  This is a beautiful arrangement in the EFY book from a couple of years ago.  I Believe in Christ

I'm so thankful for good music and for the talents which Heavenly Father has blessed me with!  I know I'm not the absolute greatest, but I don't really care.  It's just important that I can bring myself and others joy with the talents which I do have.  

What Has College Done to Me?!

I used to be a shy and quiet person.  Then all that changed.  College life began.  My roommates are all AMAZING!  I love all of them so super duper much!  We always have great times, and there's NEVER a dull moment in Apartment 301.  It's pretty epic!  Carlee and I have been in this scary movie watching mode, and Christy's been joining us lately, much to our great joy and pleasure.  Tonight, we were making plans to go get "The Roommate" from Red Box then go to Horkley's to get some really big, really cheap root beer.  I don't even remember how, but the topic of war paint came up in our conversation, and we decided to have some fun with makeup.  This is how we started. 

Then we really got crazy!  First of all with a dance party in our bathroom, dancing to Grease and Hairspray music. 

Then we pulled out all our makeup and put our hair up in fun ways.  We. Are. Gorgeous.

And yes, just in case you are wondering, we did go out like this.  And got lots of laughs and smiles all along the way.  So I ask again... what has college done to me?!  I have no idea, but it's fun!

We then proceeded to have the most epic of dance parties in our living room.  I'm not sure if this link will work, but we'll try it.  If not, go to my facebook and look at the "Barbie Girls" video I'm tagged in.  I think you'll quite enjoy.  But I hope you'll still talk to me afterwards.  Barbie Girls 

Oh, and keep in mind that this whole experience was BEFORE we got on a sugar high.  You don't want to see us on one. 

Happy Birthday Mommy!

It's Mom's birthday!  So I wanted to recognize her for the fantastic Mom she is!  She's the greatest Mom in the world!  She does everything for me, and I can't even say how grateful I am for her!  So here's some trips down memory lane.

Disneyland is our favorite place to go!  This is Mom and I right after Splash Mountain.  We got soaked!

 

 

 During the house remodel, Mom and I showed our buffness and ripped out the tile and wood from the front entrance.  Pretty fun, and we did a great job if I do say so myself!

Mom was the chaperone for my Royal Blue trip to Disneyland!  This is us on the plane!  I love going to with my best friend places!

 

Mom's also one of my biggest supporters in everything I do!  She encouraged and helped me through my district musicals.  This is Mom and her older daughter, ME!!!  As Aunt March in Little Women.

Mom hates camping.  But she's the Stake Young Women President, so she's had to go!  It was really fun seeing her camp!

And one of my favorite moments... FAMILY GAME TIME!!!  I think we grow closer as a family when we have fun together!  So family game nights are just the greatest!  Story behind this one is the game Curses!  It's basically the greatest game ever created!  Hilarious!  Especially when you start it on New Years Eve at 1:00 in the morning.  :)  This picture was taken at an awkward moment.  Mom had to demonstrate how to shave an invisible cat.  Guess who's the cat?  Yep!  That's me!

I love you bunches Mom!  You're the best!  Thanks for everything!

Chocolate Chips and Midterms

"My tummy's talkin'!"
"We could make a band with our weird noises."
*Uncontrollable laughter and spazzing out*
Studying in the closet.  It's like a box where you feel safe.
Twitching.

These are just a few of the things that have happened to me, Kira, and our roommate Kelsey in the past half hour.  Yes, it's midterms week.  Yes, we've had a lack of sleep.  Yes, it's late again.  And YES, we've eaten lots and lots and lots of chocolate chips.  These things combined make for a VERY entertaining life together.  And new quotes on the quote wall.  Can't wait for finals week!