Top 10 Reasons Why I'm Excited for School (:

10. SVU has such a beautiful campus! I absolutely love the red buildings. It's nestled in the hills

(you just can't tell a rocky mountain girl that those hills are mountains haha)

of southern Virginia and it's just so green and beautiful (: I'm especially excited for fall! The colors will be breathtaking. (:

9. My classes. Especially my history of Western Democracy classes... and jogging class! Not so much for Spanish & Math. But, aw well, it will be great!

8. The LDS environment. I mean, diversity and getting to know tons of people is always awesome. I love meeting new people and learning about their varying lives & backgrounds & beliefs (:

But it will  be so nice to be in an environment where people completely understand & share my beliefs and standards!

7. Being around cute guys (: Especially cute LDS guys! And I just found out my ward is the one with all the VMI (Virginia Military Institute) students... woot woot (;

6. Living on my own! This is a big step for being completely on my own. I am so excited for that.

5. Making friends! I've never lived with tons of people all my age before. It will be a blast having fun roommates & just making great friends (: and having the opportunity to be a great friend!

4. Joining clubs & being involved! Institute will be amazing. And I think the Outdoor Club is calling my name (:

3. This is silly, but I'm excited to wear my new school clothes (: & shoes! One of the funnest feelings is wearing your snazzy new outfit for school haha. And carrying around your brand new school supplies... highlighters & notebooks & pens & folders... I'm such a nerd, but that stuff is so fun!

2. The Professors seem amazing! Everyone I've met there is so friendly and helpful. And I'm excited that I'll be able to really get to know my Professors & people in my classes

1. The awesome experiences!

From those weird things you do with friends at like 2 in the morning... (on the weekend, of course), to the studying intensely late in the library, to those awkward/funny dates and the great dates in between (: to walking around campus.... to cheering at football games & going to dances!

And all those crazy, random, but awesome things that just happen in life... especially in college life, haha.

SVU will just be so great. I'm so excited, and so grateful I have this opportunity (:

One more week!!

(some pictures via google, bing, & flickr. excited to take some of my own, too)

  

 

 

 

Awkward & Awesome

Awkward

So I was driving down the streets of West Jordan, just an ordinary day, in the massive beast of a 15 seater van that I drive.  I was sitting at the intersection, & the cars from the other side drove past me through the intersection. I was just sitting there, thinking while the people around me were talking, waiting for the light to turn green - and suddenly this one car caught my eye! It was just a nice normal car, but the people inside of it were looking right at me, pointing and laughing! I was just like what the?? I looked right at them, trying to figure out what they were laughing at, and they just kept looking at me and laughed, and then drove speedily away. It was so weird. I've never had that happen to me before - I mean, with no apparent reason.. haha.

 It was so weird!

Our traditional Great Salt Lake trip. So every year, my family heads out to swim in the Great Salt Lake. If you've never been, the experience is totally unique. Your driving to the lake, and you know your getting close because the air starts to smell super odd, and kind of gross. As you walk to the beach, the ground feels crunchy from the salt. When you get to the beach, you  speedily slather on sunscreen and run as fast as you can into the water because there are swarms of flies everywhere. When you get into the water, the flies for the most part disappear - but then you notice the thousands upon thousands, honestly millions, of tiny red brine shrimp swimming all around you. The water is crystal clear, so you watch out for the patches of mysterious black gunk at the bottom, and wade out as far as you want. Because of the salt, every tiny cut on your body stings, and watch out to get any water in your eyes! (and your mouth! although you should probably avoid that at all costs anyways..) because it will hurt way bad.

Haha, crazy experience, right? 

Even though it's really a sort of super gross place, my Mom loves going there. So we go every summer. But really, once you get past the flies & shrimp (which are harmless, just gross) it is a cool experience. There's only one other lake like it in the world, which is the Dead Sea in Israel. When you wade out, you can see the bottom of the lake perfectly clear, and the sand underneath is shaped into beautiful wavy patterns from the waves. Then when the sun comes out, the water catches the sunlight, and it's absolutely beautiful. It's also really cool swimming, because you don't sink - because of the salt, you just float  right on top, with no effort at all. Then when you get out, when you dry your just covered in salt, and apparently it's really good for your skin (: The salt on the beach is really cool too, it looks like ice. 

So, it's a pretty crazy place! Really gross, but it makes for fun memories, haha. And it's cool we have one of two places in the world like that so close (:

Awesome

pretty much everything else! 

I've loved spending time with family & friends.

Each summer all of the kids have a "special day" with our Daddy. It's just one on one time with him, and we get to choose whatever we want to do. It's a really fun tradition too. So anyways, this week was my turn, & I chose to go do Family History work. I know, completely random right? Haha. But let me explain (: He works at the Family History Library in SLC, and is a specialist in Swedish research. Even though he's really humble about it, he's one of  the best at what he does. And he absolutely loves it. So I figured it would be cool to get a taste of what he does, and it's a great opportunity! It ended up being a lot of fun, I felt like a detective putting all the pieces together, or like trying to piece together a giant puzzle. It was cool to look at the original documents & handwriting too. Afterwards we went for gelatto (Italian ice cream), which is absolutely delicious, & just talked. It was a lot of fun!

This trip has been so much fun. I can't believe how much we've packed in, we've done so many fun things & had so many cool experiences. It's been kinda tough in some ways too, & humbling, but good. Ha. 

Only a week or so left, and then back out East. I'm so excited to start that adventure in my life (: 

It will be so, so good. I am so blessed! Seriously. Life is not easy, I think for anyone. But there is so, so, so much good in it too! Things that make it worth the tough times a hundred times over. I'm so blessed (:

Alrighty, the end for today!

salty beach

love this kid. my kid brother from another mother (:

Rockies

I love camping (:

So much. 

Especially in the Uintahs! 

Everywhere you look is a stunning view or delicate little flower that just takes your breath away.

We had such a great time. My family is awesome.

Hiking, smores, smelling like campfire, sleeping in a sleeping bag, fishing, watching the stars...

it was just awesome (:

If I could, I think I would quite easily go live in a cabin somewhere in the mountains, away from the world. Ha.

As long as I could visit the city & cool places sometimes (:

 It's so peaceful.

Mirror Lake

Jacob's concentrating (: & Isaac's a creeper.. haha

Grumpy

The view was stunning. Wow.

Macho Man (:

All the rocks on top looked like this... I mean, everywhere you looked. It was so beautiful. 

Woohoo!

Amazing view (:

Pretty Katharine!

My brothers love throwing sticks... so when I started looking at the pictures, I noticed in a few of the lovely pictures there would be a random levitating stick in the background. Hahaha. Hilarious (: So this is number 1...

& here's number 2 (: 

The "If we saw Bigfoot" face (;  Apparently Katharine would  be totally chill... haha

Hahaha (:

My favorite part of camping!!

The parents

Provo Falls

August!!

Wow, 

August is officially here.

Crazy! 

Just two more weeks and I'm leaving Utah :(

I'm going to miss my family so much. Daddy & Mom & Katharine especially... 

bleh. 

That's too sad. So I'm not going to think about that right now.

Instead,

I'll think of the super exciting things coming up (:

Like school!

I'll be living on my own in less then a month (:

Can I sufficiently tell you how excited I am?

I don't think so. Haha

I am beyond excited! 

Living on my own, with some roommates (I bet we'll become good friends! Hopefully! Worst case scenario I'll learn from them... but my hypothesis is that they'll be super fun, and we'll become great friends)

I'm so excited (:

I just need to get a few things ready... like learn how to change a tire. 

And learn how to check the oil in my car. 

And get a cute little mini fridge, for my insulin.

All those silly, totally necessary, grown up, practical things that I should probably already know.
 No biggie!

I'm soo excited (:

I'm sure I'll learn a ton, and have so much fun, and will just be cruising forward with my life,
 building it the best I can.
I'm so excited for my classes too, and for dating, and the student wards,
and for beautiful, historic Virginia.
And to drive in my car again (: with the windows down & my lovely music playing...

It will be such a blast.

I can't believe time is going so fast!