Easter

Seriously, you've heard me rave about them, but I am going to sing praises to my home teachers again. The two guys above are great! They brought Tornado and me a cleaning bucket full of toys, candy, and carrots for Easter....said they knew the Easter Bunny. Love them!

After dinner we went to the park to enjoy some beautiful sunshine. We never know how long this will last since Utah does stupid things like snowing on the Friday before! I was well upset! May have thrown a small tantrum, so I was definitely pleased when the weather was much better this weekend!

I love swinging! It's my favorite and it has been my whole life! Best thing at a park in my personal opinion.

My "otter" half ;)

Our Easter feast...not too bad for college students eh?

My roommates and me in our natural habitat. We did get some nice pics but I like these better I feel like they have character. It is always a good time having your roommate trying to straddle you in her pencil skirt or you try to do the same thing to her (in her 5 inch heels) in your maxi dress. Believe me, it's not an easy feat.

So it's been a while....

So I may have not blogged in over 8 months...sorry about that. But I just wanted to let you all know that I have been doing stuff! I will try to give a somewhat brief overview of the fun things I've been up to! (Shown in no particular order)

*Warning: may get a bit mushy at the end

I love the movie Tangled, so lifting floating lanterns in the air has happened for me a couple times this year. My home teachers made this happen for me! I have had the best home teachers this year. They cook with me, do yoga with me, bring me flowers, let me unexpectedly punch them in the gut and of course teach spiritually uplifting messages.

Kenzie and I got to go to our friend's ward prom. It was such a good time complete with dinner, dancing, and snow falling! I love the snow!

On President's Day a group of us decided to go to the hot springs. We had a blast!

So I have the sweetest older sister in the whole wide world! Danielle and the kids sent me a "box of sunshine"! It was filled with everything yellow...yellow nail polish, golden graham gold fish, yellow napkins and slinky and cards from everyone. However my roommates and I got extreme pleasure playing with the noise putty and stress ball that was in the box. Nalani would make the noise putty sound and riotous laughter occurred and Tori and Kenzi repeatedly throwing the ball at the wall trying to hit the same spot over and over again! We love acting like children together!

In October my mom's best friend and her husband flew from Alaska for General Conference and they were sweet enough to invite my roommates and me! We had a great time! I hadn't seen them since I was about seven and I can see why my mom is best friend's with her. They were so funny and nice!

I turned 22 this year! It was my Golden Birthday...I turned 22 on the 22nd! So of course we had a huge golden themed party complete with dancing on table tops, ping pong, and glitter! Oh and do you notice that fabulous golden tutu I'm wearing? Yeah my friend Brooke (seen below) made that for me because I was turning two - two!

This is Brooke!I love her so much! She use to live with me in NC and here in UT with me as well, then she moved to Alaska! But she came back down for a visit and I got to see her!

Brad may have cut this apple in half with just his hand. He karate chopped it right up!

So Tornado and I took a couple of our friends for a picnic in the canyon and then did some face painting. We are all regular Picassos.

We went to Sundance again this year! It was so cold! I couldn't feel my toes! But Tori and I climbed beautifully through that snow....I'm like a mountain goat! We saw this movie about this creepy old man who pretended to be a 14 year old boy and actually convinced everyone that he was this kid. After the film we went to a restaurant called Silver. The manager looked like Robert Pattinson. At one point during dinner Mattison and I held each other's hands and looked lovingly at one another....Tornado caught us. It was hilarious and what made it even better is that Jake didn't know what we were all laughing about. It drove him nuts...so now you know Jake.

The Colors happened again this year! Again there was dancing, throwing of chalk, llamas, and so much more. However this year there may have been an incident in which Tori and I hid Jake's keys above his tire because we needed to leave before him but our stuff was in his car. So after that we went to Tucano's (oh how I love Tucano's!) to celebrate our friend getting an internship. Well while there I get a call from Jakey. He couldn't find his keys and neither him or Mattison had their phones so they had to hitch hike home. Apparently they had quite the adventure. Later that night Mattison, Lawrence, and I went back to get Jake's car. I felt like I was in a war zone. all three of us were clean and the chances of us getting re-chalked was very great. We got in and out of there as quick as we could! After the festival I came home to an impromptu party thrown by my roommate. I had lots of homework so I went downstairs with Jake and Lawrence and watched How to Lose a Guy in 10 days....those boys absolutely loved it. It was great watching them crack up at it!

After that we played a game to see how good of friends we were... I am the best at knowing Tornado, but sadly I seem to know nothing about Jake Page. oops!

Of course we had chicken picata on MLK Day!

We had our annual Thanksgiving feast with our friends!

Us at the hot spring fields!

So after Sundance I was kidnapped by my friend, Lawrence. He took me back to his and Brad's place where I was informed that Brad was going to propose to Brooke! It was so exciting! We planned a scavenger hunt , set off floating lanterns and then went and celebrated at Spark. I'm so grateful they let me be apart of their special day!

Did some service projects with friends. Our friend Taylor spent 20 minutes trying to convince all of us to buy this couch...he failed.

We had a ward activity were we went to Temple Square. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and got to see everything all lit up! Aren't my roommates and I attractive?

Some sporting events were attended this year....or at least partially. Mattison and I may have left this game earlier for food. We can only take so many hours of the football at one time. After this Mattison may have discovered this wonderful tree that made a sort of shelter. So what did we do? We told Tornado and Jake to climb in and they did! We sat there and waited for them to kiss! They didn't....not until the Color Festival! We just had to be patient! It was glorious, Mattison and I waited for this for a real long time!

Yes I did some pumpkin carving, I'm well experienced but apparently my dear Lawrence had never really done this before. So we decided to do one together. Aren't we cute?

You've heard me talk about Lawrence a couple times now, so let me properly introduce him. This is Lawrence, he is Brad's roommate. Lawrence may have been in my ward freshman year but he refused to be my friend. I guess I wasn't cool enough for him. But he finally saw the light once he got back from his mission and now we are real good friends! I adore this boy, he is real sweet. He has been a highlight of this year for my roommates and me.

Lastly, a majority of my life is spent with these girls. I love them very much! They are my family away from home. I have been with Tori and Nalani for years now and I just got Kenzi this year. I am very grateful for them in my life. Kenzi is so outgoing and such a good cook. she is always up for a good time. I'm excited to be living with her again next year! Nalani is so kind hearted and loving. Nalani is my shoulder to cry on, the person to laugh at stupid things with in a stupid sounding laugh, and one of the best people I know. Tori is one of my best friends. She is a deep thinker and a great conversationalist. She is my sweet room roommate, the one who I tell late night secrets to, and ask advice from. Nalani and Tori are going on missions. I am going to miss them very much but I am so incredibly proud of them. So in conclusion they are wonderful people who I love and I've learned so much from!

Sorry for such the long blog. I did a lot this year, much more than shown here! It's been a good year! Here is looking forward to next year!

Tornado, Temples, T Parties and The Rest of Summer So Far

I've been home for a month now and I have had a blast being home!

My sweet roommate came down to North Carolina! I could hardly believe we were in the same state! I got to meet her mom and her friend Nancy! They were all so sweet to me. We just hung out and of course went shopping! Only five weeks till I get to see her again!

At school I'm use to having the Temple 5 minutes away. Here at home it is a little bit further. The Young Single Adults went and did Baptisms this past weekend. It was nice to go since it had been awhile.

My sister Rachel and I went with our friend Haley to see the final Harry Potter. Of course we dressed up and were all set to go. We are sitting waiting for the movie to start and no one is yelling or cheering. I was baffled, this was the final movie!!!! Where was the excitement?!!? So the movie begins and still no one cheers so I decide to....I'm the only one in this massive theater to scream....then dead silence. I was like oh crap no one joined in and my sister is making the face "Why Emily?! Why do you do these things!?" But then suddenly everyone starts clapping and cheering. It was the best feeling in the world! I felt like i had started a movement!!!

Mine, Rachel's, and Molly's Tea Party

My sister has three kids, two boys and a girl. Now I love her two boys more than anything but playing with Molly is so much more fun to me sometimes. I much prefer Barbies and Polly to Bionicles and Star Wars. Rachel and I pulled out all our toys from when we were little for Molly to play with but honestly I think we may have had more fun then she did!

My sister and I decided last minute to go to the Taylor Swift Concert. It was great! We had floor seats and were super close to the stage. It was so much fun!

Australia!

So I apologize that I haven't updated in two months...but my lovely laptop was being repaired and I could not access all of my photos. Anyways I spent a month Down Under. There is no possible way that I could write about all my adventures and stories I have from traveling there but below are just a few of the photos I took! It was amazing and I had such a good time. It was a really good experience for me and I learned a lot!

This is Nicole and me. While there I became addicted to gelato. Oh my gosh it is so good. It is quite depressing that it isn't on every street corner here like it is there.

I spent a lot of my time on boats and ferries while there. I love being out on the water. In this pic we are on our way to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. I hate and am really creeped out by fish. So this was a big deal for me. I ended up having a blast! However, unfortunately my water bottle went all Titanic on me and fell into the ocean. My friends were freaking out because they had it drilled into us "not to pollute the ocean"! Hopefully no sea turtles died because of me.

I got to meet aboriginals and listen to them play the didgeridoo. I also got to throw a boomerang and a spear. I actually didn't do to bad with the boomerang, I didn't catch it but it went well for my first time. However throwing the spear was a different story. When you throw the spear you use a launcher type thing, you're suppose to hold on to this after you throw the spear....I didn't and almost took out an aboriginal. oops!

We went to this beautiful beach called Whitehaven Beach. We ocean rafted out there. It was perfect! The wind rushing through your hair, music playing and the sun shining! The sand there is almost pure silica so it appears white. This was probably one of my favorite days. Except the seagulls there were wicked, vicious creatures. They attacked us. They were just as annoying as the ones in Finding Nemo. Also on this day I accidently stole a wet suit from the company we rafted with. I don't really know why these things happen to me but it sure does make life more entertaining!

So when you imagine Australia I'm sure you think sand and sun right? Wrong! It was freezing and wet and overcast over half the time we were there. This is the best the could express how we felt about this situation.

We went rappelling in the Blue Mountains. This was so much fun! I loved just bouncing right down those cliffs!

The first two weeks I was there I volunteered and we went on Koala Surveys. This is a horrible thing to do. You don't go and observe adorable Koalas like I imagined. You dig around in the deep rain forest, getting covered with leeches and tics, searching for their poop. It is really glamorous! Well we didn't see any signs of them while surveying in the first two weeks. So when I finally got to see and pet one I was just thrilled! They are so cute and cuddly! I also got to see lots of other animals like kangaroos (I actually ate one too! What country eats their national animal!?) and wombats. I've decided I want one of these! They are so ugly they're cute!

We spent a day in Sydney. I saw the Opera House, the famous bridge, their huge aquarium, and the botanical gardens!

We also went up into the Viewing Tower they have. You can see all of Sydney from up there. While trying to get up there I walked into someone's office by mistake. I definitely was not suppose to be in there!

This is Nick! I love Nick! The first two weeks we planted over 1,000 trees! We got to name some of the trees. We chose names from family members, friends, and characters from books. One of the names I chose was inspired by my friend Mattison. Firestar. The host family loved it! It was definitely their favorite. They were cracking up. That tree has a lot to live up to.

This is Katie. She was my bunk mate and one of the people there I became closest to. I loved waking up in the morning and discussing all of our secrets and having someone to travel outside in the dark with at one in the morning! We had so much fun together.

We also went white water rafting!!! So much fun! We went down head first, on our stomachs, piled on top of each other at the front of the raft down one of the rapids. It was a blast!

The guy in the picture with us is Erik. He is from Holland. So that's what we called him, Holland or well sometimes I called him Blondie. The four of us plus this French guy became really close. Oh and he normally doesn't dress like that....we made him.

Can you believe they let me use an ax! According to certain people I know I break things, so it was very brave of them to let me do this. No one was harmed. However speaking of breaking things I have to make a confession. So the family we stayed with the first two weeks were real hippies. All about saving energy and water conservation. So what do I do, I almost flood their kitchen! I was in there cooking one day and I went to just use a little bit of water but the knob breaks off the sink and I can't shut the water off! I'm freaking out because I broke something that's not mine and I'm wasting water!!! After a few minutes this girl named Emma who works there fixes it. Crises averted!

This is Shannon this is one of the other girls I became really good friends with. Katie, her and I spent all of our time together. Our favorite past time was talking about Martin, the french kid. Shannon had a big fat crush on him!

This is Martin! He is from France. We became good friends. He tried to teach me French but apparently I have a terrible accent. He didn't even know what I was saying to him when I exclaimed Bonjour! I feel as though all those years of watching Beauty and the Beast were a waste! But his American accent wasn't that great either! Communication was hard sometimes and at the beginning I felt like I was playing charades, but by the end we understood each other pretty well!